Walls in France: Loto!

Lotos are a big deal in the south of France. I see them advertised everywhere, but I had never been to one until the other night. I actually didn't know what they were all about but I knew they were fundraisers for certain groups. A few weeks ago, Lucie and Kathleen brought home information about a loto that their school was hosting. Included in the info packet were orange loto cards and a long letter about what I was supposed to do. I was completely clueless but luckily, my friend, Veronique Heurteloup, came to the rescue. She gave me the crash course on the French loto and convinced me that we HAD to attend. So, I paid my money, kept my cards and planned to meet Veronique and family at the event so they could help us through the evening.

There were hundreds of people at the venue when we arrived. (My immediate thought was that this was a great fundraiser and I should spread the word to our PTAs in SC!) Tables were lined up throughout the large room and people were sitting close together, orange cards in front of them, fiddling with the little metal things that we were going to use for covering up the numbers. I talked to the school director who was sitting behind me and told him it was our first loto. He warned me that things went slowly and that the evening would be long, but that it would be fun...especially if we won something! Well, that was not to be. No one at our table (of about 20) won anything. A couple of us were close, but no cigar. All of the younger people we excited about the possibility of winning an itouch while most of the adults were vying for the trip valued at 1000 Euros. I had my hopes set on a new vacuum cleaner, but alas some other lucky soul went home with it.

Loto is a lot like bingo. A person calls out a number and if you have that number on your card, you cover it up. If you cover up all of the numbers in a line, you holler "quine." I practiced saying 'quine' a lot because I was convinced I would yell 'bingo' but I never got the chance to say either. For the really big prizes, we were supposed to cover up the entire card which was excruciating because it took forever and every time the gal called a number we were expecting someone else to win - which eventually happened each time. It was exciting though and fun to be at the school function with the girls, their friends and the other parents. It was also good practice for our French skills because the 70s, 80s and 90s have always a challenge for me. We didn't win anything, but we did have a fun evening and look forward to our next loto!