Recipe: A Classy, French Night

Ingredients:

• Cheese (2-3 options)
• For best results, use a decent cheese. Emmental, Gruyère, Camembert, and Gorgonzola are all good options
• Expand your options, using the 'regular' cheeses all the time is fine and good, but can be repetitive. Branch out! I found a great cheese, super delicious, form Italy - Percino di Vino. Excellent flavour, aged in red wine.
• Never use cheap, American cheese. Like Cheddar.
• Wine (red yields preferred results)
• A decent $5-10 wine will work. Sometimes wines priced $2-3 can be good; sources vary.
• Baguette (must have a crunchy crust)
• Wine glasses
• A must-have with wine. Regular glasses scream college-student. We are trying to break that image.
• Fruit
• Some fruit is almost a necessity. Berries and grapes work best and compliment all the flavours of the evening.
• Raspberries, grapes, blackberries, and even apples/pears are your best bet.
• Chocolate
• Optional
• Never cheap, American chocolate. Swiss and Belgian is best.
• Speakers or computer
• French or "classy" music
• Nice, semi-formal attire
• Cutting board and knife
• Add your own flare
• I brought some cornichons because I love them and miss them, and they rocked.

Steps:

1. Bring out the cutting board and knife. With the cheese selections, cut enough pieces from the harder cheeses for at least enough to fill the face of the board. Keep cheeses separated. Nine times out of ten, people do not know their cheeses.
2. Open the bottle of wine. Better to do this ahead of time, because, as you are a university student, you may not have a corkscrew (it happens to the best of us), so some decent thudding against a wall might be in order to de-cork that bottle of wine. There are some decent screw-top wines, but the choices are limited.
3. Break off two to three, but no more, pieces of the baguette. It is better (and more French; remember the purpose of this evening) to have the person break off their own piece from the baguette.
4. Set up the speaker and/or computer. This step is critical: the night might be decent, but without the proper mood-setting music, it will just feel like nearly every other university room-gathering.  Below are some recommended artists or albums to work from.
1. Michael Bublé (sets a great, recognizable mood)
2. Julie & Julia - Various Artists (great mix of French tunes)
3. Jacques Brel (who could be more French)
4. Les Champs-Elysées - Joe Dessin (play only once the wine has started to set in. Leads to communal chanting of "Ohh Champs-Elysées ba-da ba-da-bum")
5. Le Tango des Gens - Sanseverino (great French album)
6. Nora Jones and Joni Mitchell (both artists set a great, soft mood)
7. Ratatouille - Michael Giacchino and Various Artists (so many people now know Ratatouille. The soundtrack is very French and fun)
8. Tortilla Soup - Various Artists (this is iffy. It is latin music, not really giving the French vibe, but a great album with wonderful sounds)
5. Make sure to be in your nice clothes. Anything older, or giving off the older vibe, is recommended (1950's, 40's are great). Just look nice, like formal nice.
6. Invite friends
7. Live life.

Of note: to increase class, light candles. It is also great to take the used wine bottle and convert it to a candle holder. It looks great, and it is an awesome use of the empty wine bottle.

UPDATE:
Images from 'Classy Night':

Please ignore the dying fern.