No-one wants to be the person who turns up for casual drinks wearing a ballgown, but equally it's quite awkward to arrive at a very formal event wearing jeans and clutching a six-pack of beer and a bag of crisps. It's therefore helpful to know exactly the type of event you are lucky enough to have been invited to by your French friends, neighbours or colleagues. Apéro - definitely the most common type of French social event, an apéro is pre-dinner drinks.
People might invite you to meet them in a bar for apéro , or they might host an apéro in their homes. In either cases the basic outline is the same - it will involve drinks and a few light snacks, but no meal. Apéro usually takes place from around 6.
30pm to 8.30pm, at which time people leave to go and have dinner. There are some classic apéro drinks - for example white wine, a kir, pastis or a spritz if it's summer .
However, beer is becoming more popular as an apéro drink and younger people are tearing up some of the old rules. READ ALSO Apéro - what to know about France's 'sacred' evening tradition Happy Hour - somewhat similar is a 'happy hour' - almost always pronounced more like 'appy ow-errrr'. This takes place in a bar or a café and is the period, usually in the early evening, where there are discounts on certain drinks - it's the bar's effort to attract the post-work, pre-dinner, apéro crowd.
Despite the name, Happy Hours almost never last for an hour: the discount period is usually more like thre.
