All the Christmas and New Year festivities have finished and everything is back to normal. The sales have started here but without the frenzy that seems to happen in the UK. The dates of the sales are organised by the Minister of the Economy and not the individual shops. On 7th December it was declared that the sales would start on the first Wednesday of January. Each prefect of the departments would decide whether they would last 4, 5, or 6 weeks.
The weather over the last month has been terrible. We have had snow on several days, rain, freezing fog and days when the temperature hasn’t got above -3 degrees. It was a good job we managed to get our wood supply in time!
Although Epiphany is 6th January, the French seem to celebrate with gateaux throughout the month of January. Last Friday at Fléchettes, galettes des rois and bottles of Cider and Blanquette were provided and much appreciated too.
After the Randonneurs walk on Tuesday 3 galettes des rois and bottles of cider were produced. It was very pleasant eating and drinking in the late evening sunshine.
The tradition actually dates back to the 14th century. It is an ancient festival which celebrates the 3 kings who brought gifts to Jesus, soon after he was born.
A ’fève’ (*originally a bean but now tends to be a plastic trinket) is baked inside the cake and the cake is shared around the table. Whoever receives the fève is then crowned king or queen for the day.
The Queens on this occasion were France, Jo and myself!
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