The Six-Hour Endurance Sport Known as "Le Réveillon"

A recurring theme in recent expat and travel forums like r/AskFrance is the pure shock at the sheer length of the traditional French Christmas Eve meal, Le Réveillon [r/AskFrance/comments/1spu8c3/how_do_you_celebrate_christmas/]. Foreigners frequently joke about expecting a standard dinner, only to find themselves trapped at a table for six hours. Amused commenters describe it less as a dinner and more as an aggressive, multi-course marathon involving endless oysters, plates of foie gras, a heavy main dish like capon (fattened rooster), an intense cheese course, and finally the bûche de Noël (yule log cake). Recent online survival tips jokingly warn newcomers that the only way to make it through a French Christmas dinner alive is by pacing yourself and never, ever filling up on the bread.