Fête des Voisins

Do you know your neighbors?

Jordan and I have lived in the same apartment since we arrived in Aix-les-Bains 2 years ago.  We have tried to be intentional about meeting the neighbors that live in the other 3 apartments in our building, but on May 29, with the encouragement of the French government, we threw a block party as a way of meeting the other neighbors in the surrounding apartment buildings with the hopes of building a community.

It was great!

Jordan spent several days preparing games, ordering meat, distributing invitations, and organizing this event.  The few people that we interacted with directly were unable to come, and though we ordered 100 sausages for the BBQ, we were uncertain if we'd have anyone but our friends from church show up.

At 5:30 we began setting up tables and blowing up balloons.  At 7 we brought out the appetizers and drinks.  A few minutes later, several people arrived with their hands full of food and smiles on their faces.

Everyone who came was thrilled that we'd organized the event.  "Quel bel initiative," they said over and over again.  One building, located directly behind our's, has been there for 15 years.  They have not had a Fête des Voisins in over 10 years - maybe not ever.  They laughed, saying that it takes the young Americans to make a party happen.  I heard one man say, "We need to make sure that each building has at least one Pennsylvanian in it so that we are guaranteed to have a party every year."

One woman told me she saw the flyers and invitations but she didn't believe them.  Her kids begged her to come, but she tried to get them to forget about it.  "We were at the park though, and when we came home, we saw all of these people here; it was actually happening!  So we stayed."  Her kids, along with several adults, asked multiple times with great anticipation, "Will you do this again next year?!"  

Our French friends from church encouraged us and laughed at themselves.  "It's so French," they said.  "No one knows each other, they hardly say hello, and then, one day, there's the Fête des Voisins and all of the sudden it's like they are actually friends."  That is our prayer.  Despite the economic and social divide between the buildings (which we learned of just the other night), we pray that there would be a sense of community in this place.  May God's Kingdom come to Aix-les-Bains as it is in Heaven!

After a few hours, it began to rain.  It didn't send people home though; we simply moved the tables under the passageway of our building.

 Jordan and I counted 49 people at our Fête des Voisins (including us, 5 friends from church who are not neighbors but came to help, and all of the kids).  Praise God!