Advertised on a local notice board, to start at 8.30pm on Saturday, €7 with refreshments on sale at the venue.
I assumed it is some kind of musical/dance evening, would I be right? 
Seems it’s this…
Short for ‘Bal Danses Traditionnelles’ maybe.
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That’s what I thought, all very jolly wasn’t it? Compares in some ways with the The Dansants that we used to attend, though with more emphasis on group participation. I can imagine getting in a right pickle trying to remember all those steps though, and not getting it right could cause mayhem with the others, whereas with the Dansants it was mostly couples doing their own thing, so we could make it up as we went along without derangeing others. 
Also they were an afternoon thing.
These seem to be trying to encourage the youngsters too as under 16s get in free,
Might give it a go, bugger all on telly Saturdays is there?
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I’m not a dancer, but I’d love to be in the band. It looks great fun.
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Go for it David, I’m sure they encourage novices,
At first I thought it was a 'tidy 'hooky kooky* 
You come down and play whatever it is you play, and I will be on the floor making a fool of myself. Deal?
And @Lily , you’re not far away, bring himself with you and show us your moves.
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Bal Trads sometimes have a separate afternoon session to teach some of the dances. Check the notice.
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During my second week of life in S Africa I received a U of Stellenbosch art historians’ conference invite. Everything seemed straightforward - conference papers, wine tastings etc - apart from the query about whether I wanted to go to the snoek braai.
At that time braai had yet to enter my vocab and I’d no idea what a snoek was, but for some reason I ominously thought it might be an Afrikaner folk music evening, possibly with traditional dancing (horror!) I told my secretary something to that effect. and when she’d finished laughing, she explained that it was a barracuda BBQ.
In the event, very nice, despite the bones being nearly as long as the fish…
However my wariness about academic conferences and folk dancing was confirmed about ten years later at the U of Stirling’s conference on Scottish landscape history that culminated in elderly kilted academics furiously stripping the willow faster and faster, and flinging their partners into the audience.
Not a conference I’ll forget - bit like the international aesthetics conference in Dubrovnik where seemingly august, elderly Oxbridge profs were still shooting pool in a nightclub at 3am prior to the conference opening at 9 that morning.
So was not surprised the other day by this report:
Elderly academics can be like Hells Angels in gowns…
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I once filmed a London Chinese Christian wedding (ceremony at St Martin in the Fields, reception at the Russell Hotel in Bloomsbury) - very prim and proper, everyone was drinking water and orange juice (I think there was one token bottle of wine for the alcoholics) - and then they proceeded to cut the rug to an authentic Scottish ceilidh band.
Pure chaos, and many collisions! Not many guests had any idea what to do.
And then it was all over by 7.30pm. 
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As implied, all the evenings mentioned above ended somewhat later…
Thats what conferences are for, sod the agenda (mine was scientific/ cancer research) just there for the piss ups!
I did read it twice and there was no mention of that, if I do go Ill probably sit with a drink and watch what goes on and then go with the flow. 
They are quite popular on this side of the Massif Central, been to a few myself with both first, and current, spouse. Personally, I’m more interested in the music and instruments being played, the dancing is a little too sedate for my liking.
I did go, got there at 9pm and was lucky to find a seat. I was surprised that I only recognised 4 people there amongst the great throng.
I watched from my seat the whole time, a true wallflower but will go again because I enjoyed it so much.
The band was great (3 fiddles, a guitar and keyboard and one of the fiddlers also played a clarinet and sang as well as instructing, though not all at the same time ) and one of their number spent some time in instructing the form of the groups at the start.
The variation in the different dance forms seemed infinite and although I thought that I might remember the hang of the moves I can’t believe I could remember the different foot movements. I think I will seek some instruction and practice before the next time.
One lady I know did say why aren’t you dancing and all I could say was that I don’t know the steps. No excuse because neither did she but she still went back for more.
I watched enthralled many of the dancers and also noticed that it was difficult to decide who was with whom because the better ones amongst them changed partners frequently in the non-progressive dances. One woman who was dressed rather shabbily in a long loose skirt (she looked like a hippy), but later took it off when things got hotter to reveal a shorter one, and rather thin schoolgirl like non shapely legs was often dancing with the man in his ‘60s who was a real expert and as they gazed into each others’ eyes I picked them for a couple, but later I noticed that she did the same with all her partners, eyes locked male or female, so I still don’t know. Once when they were dancing together his movements were more like Riverdance, bouncing as he did and swinging one leg aside over the other.
I have got to go again but I left at 11.30 and there were still many on the floor, and the band had not taken a break the whole time I was there.
Well worth €7, and I arrived home to a tumultuous welcome from my 2 friends who were both fast asleep 'till I came through the door.
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I admire the fortitude of the French in their determination to get maximum enjoyment out of social occasions , just as much as I despair at their reticence to go out to the bar/cafe/pub of an evening. Maybe it’s just my locality.
In this area, going to a bar in the evening is most definitely not on a par with going to a pub in the UK. Traditionally, it’s a men-only venue. I wouldn’t go into one given the very strange looks I got when I tried it. There seem to be far more social events every week than any sane person could realistically go to and those are where everyone, regardless of age, gender, colour, sexuality etc congregates. It couldn’t be more different from social life in the UK but I think we are gradually adapting…
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At a big party in the SdF… just before midnight OH had had enough and I took him home… a few yards down the road.
The other wives were worrying about him… but also worrying about me 
We’d only been here a couple of years and still felt slightly newcomers…
Once you’ve tucked him safely in his bed… come back by yourself… they bellowed in their glorious French …(don’t ask me to remember what they actually said )
Anyway, for once, I did do that… tucked him safely in bed and tiptoed back to the party…
“Femme Liberée” was shouted with great glee… loud enough to raise the roof… when my pals saw me nervously coming back in on my own.
and they made sure I had a great time!
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We just can’t do the late nights that elderly French people seem to manage with ease.
We stay as long as we can and then leave with a loud Bonsoir Tout le Monde.
Whereas the French tend to slip off quietly, I have found. Seems “French leave”is a real thing, although I read the French use the term “filer a l’anglaise’ for the same thing, but I don’t find the British do it much.
In my experience, we tend to be casual when meeting folk we see regularly, but make sure we say a big cheerio.
They make a big thing of saying hello, but not of saying goodbye.
Maybe it’s just a difference in politeness between our cultures..
When one arrives, one acknowledges and greets one’s friends, usually by name. When one leaves one doesn’t make a big thing of saying , ‘well that’s me going, I’ll be missed…’ Maybe.
Just to add, their staying power MAY be due to their not drinking as much as we Brits tend to do.
This is exactly my view of it and, as a result, do the same myself. Many years ago when playing petanque, there may be 50 of us scattered all over the wide piste. Someone would arrive and painstakingly circulate via every single one of us and we stopped play to shake hands.
Later I would see those same ones, and others, creep away without a word or a wave.
This morning after my big shop I headed for the coffee shop. 2 outside, braving the drizzle, at least 10 around a large table inside and over to the right another 8 at 2 tables. I was expected to circulate around every single one. I know them all but none were ‘my group’ so I did not expect a shuffle to make room. My group comes in, if at all, at an earlier time and are long gone. The reason they are my group is not on Mondays at all, we all gather at the other bar further down the street, but not on a Monday, because it is shut.
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