Christmas Lunch

This year’s Christmas Lunch was held on December 17th at the Lyinc, a venue that held fond memories of the last “face to face” Christmas Lunch in 2019, with 56 of us packed into the big room…a veritable sea of Christmas sweaters and Grinch costumes!

This year, with Covid and the Omicrom variant rearing its ugly head, it was questionable whether to go ahead…the Lyinc said it could welcome up to 30 to meet new regulations (with mask and Pass’ sanitaire “de rigueur”).
Despite a number of other events in Lyon being cancelled, we took the decision to go ahead and 30 FIBA members and guests met.
At first, the atmosphere was a little restrained but the Christmas spirit soon took hold and we enjoyed a great lunch (thanks to Fabrice, Anna and team) plus a superb Christmas Quiz – we welcomed back Ed Hazlewood who was on great form and co-organized the quiz with Zöe and James.
Quiz prizes included vouchers to Lyon’s leading Epicerie raisonée, PATATE, owned by our very own Rachel Maury and a tombola featured a range of great prizes including a winter sleeveless jacket from Rossignol and a range of goodies from Camping Gaz / Newell brands
Profits from the Tombola went to Le foyer Notre Dame des Sans Abris.

Isabelle Hurley, head of DIT in Lyon, very kindly presented me with a signed book from the British Ambassador Menna Rawlings. The book explains the rich history of the British Embassy in Paris.

A great event, so good to see so many happy faces after a very tough year / 18 months for a number of our members. We look forward to 2022 and hope that life slowly gets back to normal or at least something that allows us to meet face to face on a regular basis.

My thanks to all those who helped with the organisation, in no particular order! James Gore, Zöe Adam, Rachel Maury, Ed Hazlewood, Tim Hughes, Michael Strophair and Sabine Amsellem.

Best wishes to you all

Philip Last