Bonjour
I hope that you just and yours are effectively and that you just’ve had an excellent begin to 2024.
My 12 months has began with heaps of rain, a leaking kitchen roof, soggy canine, cats, geese and chickens; it could possibly be worse, I’m grateful it’s not. And there may be at all times cake!
In the present day, 6 January, is the feast of the Galette des Rois in France – the Kings’ Cake. Its origins return many centuries, it’s the date of the Epiphany, one of many oldest festivals of Christianity, which primarily commemorates the go to of three kings to the baptism of Jesus. However the consuming of cake on that date goes again additional in time, to Roman instances – a tribute to the God of Climate – Saturn, when slaves had been invited to share a cake with their house owners. The cake contained a bean and whoever bought it was named “Prince of Saturn” and for the remainder of the day they may have what they needed. Over time the celebrations merged.
Right here in my little village, some individuals make their very own Galette des Rois – a puff pastry pie stuffed with almond paste inside which is hidden a fève – a tiny trinket that changed the Roman bean. Whoever will get it of their slice turns into ‘King’ or ‘Queen’, and wears a paper crown for a day (or goes to the dentist in the event that they’re not cautious). Me – I get my Galette des Rois from Bread Man who delivers desserts and croissants, baguettes and boules (huge spherical loaves) to the villages throughout.
Bread Man is a collector of fèves. It’s fairly a well-liked factor in France and there’s even a phrase for it – fabophille, or favophille. Lots of the well-known patisserie makers create their very own fèves – Ladurée and Pierre Hermé for example. Fèves are available in all shapes. Tiny celebrities – Woman Gagas, Disney characters, teeny suitcases, furnishings, flowers and meals. Bread Man says that he began amassing them as a child, and the joy of discovering the treasure within the cake is partly what made him need to turn out to be a baker.
At first he simply collected from his family and friends however then his ardour grew, and he began shopping for them at flea markets, and he now has greater than 1000 fèves saved on cabinets in a glass cupboard. That’s nothing in contrast to a woman who lives in Alsace and has greater than 182,000 of them!
I’ve simply 20 fèves, one for every valuable 12 months I’ve had a house in the course of nowhere, rural northern France.
I hope that you’ve an incredible 2024 and that your plans and desires to go to France come true and that you just discover loads of inspiration on the web site and in The Good Life France Journal.
Bisous
Janine
Editor
Learn the entire publication and see this week’s prime characteristic and recipe picks
Janine Marsh is Writer of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My 4 Seasons in France: A 12 months of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Dwelling the Dream in Rural France all out there as book, print & audio, on Amazon in every single place & all good bookshops on-line. Her new guide How one can be French – a celebration of the French way of life and artwork de vivre, is out now – a take a look at the French lifestyle.
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