Gourmet Club Night: French Themed Decor

French Table Setting

Side View

The big night has finally come and gone. Every course was delicious and we all enjoyed our night together. Hosting once per year is just enough! Its a great deal of fun, but also a great deal of work. Over time, we have gotten much more sophisticated (by sophisticated I mean overboard) with themed decor. Throughout our 2 (going on 3) years together we have acquired enough dishes, glasses and silverwhare to host a 5 course meal for 12. Plates and silverware are shared with the group so everyone has what they need when its their turn to host.

In support of my French Menu, I used a blend of country and traditional French elements throughout the decor. For the table setting I covered the dining table in a burlap-like fabric to create a rustic table cloth. On the table were 3 Lavender plants, 2 in clay pots and 1 in an antiqued sliver Champagne bucket.

Napkin

I found some inexpensive "Frenchy" looking dish towels and tied them with twine for napkins.

Home Goods had some cool French Apothecary Jars and I placed an assortment of figs in one and baby artichokes in the other.

The table had 6 small milk bottles that I used as vases. I created labels for the vases by using tea to stain plain copy paper printed with the name of an herb and ripped it to give it an older look, then tied twine around the center. Each vase represents one of the 6 herbs in Herbs de Provence.

The 6 Herbs of Herbs de Provence

These "bistro" type glasses ( only $1.49 a piece at IKEA!) looked great with the rest of the set up. For the water I use glass bottles, filled and chilled ahead of time. I placed a white linen napkin underneath for presentation.

I use These Bottles Year Round

To move people around the house, we nibbled on the first course, Gruyere Gourges, around a "Champagne station". These were amazing and was my favorite of all the courses. There is something about the warm souffle like bites and cold Champagne that is just magic!