Or, put another – literal – way: ‘Best Wishes’.

In France, you’re more likely to hear this than ‘Happy New Year’, although in the subsequent ritual verbal exchanges it’s probably going to be escalated to ‘bonne année‘ (good year) and the final dénouement: ‘et surtout, bonne santé‘ – ‘and, above all, good health’.

At this time of year, of course, the meilleurs voeux are flying about everywhere, and not just at the individual level. For example, by tradition, the President delivers his televised voeux (he’s a politician – the meilleurs are implicit) on New Year’s Eve, when either nobody’s watching or, if they happen to be, they’re already half-cut and limbering up for yet another session of accordion-accompanied midnight gluttony.

At the local level, things are rather more moderate (well, apart from the accordion-accompanied midnight gluttony) and take place ten days or so into the new year. Enticed by the prospect of a free drink and some canapes to munch on, a fair proportion of the residents of the commune will gather in the equivalent of the village hall to listen to the mayor expound on his and his team’s civic achievements during the year just completed. It usually only lasts about twenty minutes, so it’s worth it just for the vol-au-vents.

As you will gather from the photo (from last year’s edition), like just about everything in rural France this is not a dressy affair – although it might well be in that there Paris.

We know this now, but we didn’t the first time we attended one of these events, only about three months after we had moved here permanently. It seemed like a big ‘thing’, so I put on a jacket while Madame looked radiant (as ever) in a long dress and other finery.

Big mistake.

As we walked into the room it was immediately obvious that we were hugely overdressed – so much so that we never even took our coats off. After all, the last thing we wanted was to establish an immediate reputation as those stuck-up newby rosbifs.

So that’s why next week we will be attending in our scruff – like everybody else. Can’t miss out on those vol-au-vents.