What to serve for Apero?

We have been here nearly a month and 2 weeks ago were kindly invited round to our neighbours’ house for a drink. We had a lovely evening with a range of snacks and 2 types of drink(not too sure what it was).We are now hosting them this Sunday. In terms of the snackage I feel ok about that but don’t have a clue about drinks.Do we serve whatever we have in (wine, champagne, gin, port)or is it customary to serve a special type of beverage?

Just catching up with a few SFN posts. We serve pastis, Floc de Gascogne, dry white wine or whisky. Perhaps on special occasions, champagne. If I go to a bar I sometimes like to have a Suze :)

Sounds like an album rather than a drink!

In the same vein, what about the names for different coffee concoctions such as coffee/ Pastis which I believe is called café electric ?

Of course you could serve a curious mixture of Ricard and Coca-Cola. Known to my nephew's circle as "gasoil". They do things like that in Charente.

It happens to me all the time ,my wife calls them a brain fart :)

Tell them you are right out of pimms and you only have wine they will stop poping around.

Thanks. We live near Rodez so Mareuil is hardly round the corner ! Just looked at their website- much cheaper if you happen find yourself in Spain !

Where do you live? The Cav'Epicerie in Mareuil (24340) sells Pimms.

Vaguely on this subject, I've yet to see Pimms (or my favourite other tipple, Sheridans) available in France. Can anyone advise otherwise ? At present I source both on annual trips to Spain- where they are both cheaper than in UK anyway.

Around here, the three choices generally offered are: Ricard (with cold water also ice cubes offered) or whisky and Coca-cola or very occasionally Suze (sometimes neat sometimes with the same additions as Ricard, a few people also drink Ricard as above but with a drop of mint squash added.

Just to be clear on pamplemousse wine; It's not wine made from grapefruit but a mixture of white or rosé with grapefruit juice. Cheap and cheerful and quaffable as it's not heavy on the wine. Our locals also do the same thing with peach juice but that's a bit on the sweet and sticky side.

good spot, off the beaten track yet close to everything, used to cycle the road between nuces and macillac on one of our training rides, one of OH's uncles lives in fijaguet.

In Burgundy Kir, Cremant, or a light mineral white wine such as Chablis, or an Alsace wine would probably be offered, with pastis also available.

No, only Coca-Cola !

thanks for the reply I thought that you might have a recipe for Pimms itself.

Gradels- between Nuces and Marcillac

Nuces, Fijaguet, Valady, Salles la source...? My old training ground when I was riding with one of the clubs in Decaze. Used to work at Bourran too so drove that way everyday. Nice part of the aveyron. ;-)

Our neighbours (French) always offer Vouvray pétillant, but then they know that it's my favourite! Spritzers go down very well. Don't forget the nibbles - those little Belin (etc) biscuits are known as petits gateaux when you're offering them around. The little pizzas-topped ones are popular - can't understand why, the herbs are like hay. Anything home made shows that you're taking it seriously and will be universally admired. That could be home-made sloe gin, sponge cake, cheese straws...

Pimms itself plus lemonade, ice, cucumber,mint and any from apple,lemon and/or orange