Réveillon de Saint-Sylvestre
New Year’s Eve, celebrated with champagne, fine dining, gatherings on the Champs-Élysées and midnight countdowns.
The réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre, 31 December, is the second great dinner of the French winter, a week after the Christmas one and usually spent with friends rather than family. The table repeats the luxuries: oysters, foie gras, smoked salmon, a capon or a piece of beef, cheese and, at midnight, champagne. Restaurants and clubs sell menus with dancing until dawn, and many people rent a house with friends for the weekend.
As the douze coups de minuit strike, glasses are raised, everyone kisses everyone else, la bise on both cheeks, and couples kiss under the gui, the mistletoe hung over the door for luck. The cotillons come out: pointed paper hats, streamers, confetti and party horns. On the Champs-Élysées a crowd watches a light show projected on the Arc de Triomphe and fireworks, while the Eiffel Tower sparkles. The wish is 'Bonne année, bonne santé!', repeated to everyone met during the whole of January.
The pack has 36 words spread across these domains.
Same words in both. Beginner gets more help: matching and completing. Advanced listens and spells it out unaided. Pick it in practice; it locks when you take the scored run.
Practise as often as you like, all year. The scored run happens once, while the competition is open, and cannot be retaken.