A New Year Epiphany

Once Christmas is over in France, the shelves of every boulangerie are suddenly full of a very distinctive flat pastry and marzipan cake, usually sold with a paper crown known as the Galette des Rois (cake of the Kings.) New Year celebrations here are almost bigger and more important than Christmas. The celebration starts at the end of December when people start wishing each other Bonne Année or Happy New Year and ends on the 6^th January, or epiphany.

A Galette des Rois in the croustade shop in Saint Girons

As ever in France, any celebration is an excuse for fine food and wine and New Year is no exception with oysters, foie gras and champagne making up part of the meal of many families. Like Christmas, New Year celebrations tend to focus around a big family meal on New Year’s Eve known as le Réveillon, finishing with the Galette des Rois.

This cake is actually eaten right through January and comes with its own very specific traditions. Each is baked with a hidden charm inside known as la fêve which was originally a bean (hence the name) and is now a small china figure which children often collect. The cake is cut into pieces and the youngest child at the meal has to sit under the table and call out the name of each person to receive the next slice of cake. Whoever finds the charm hidden inside is given the paper crown to wear and becomes King or Queen for the day.

One of the many nice things about living abroad is that we can pick and choose our traditions from home or abroad, according to which appeal. So consumerism, piles of plastic toys and Christmas decorations in November are out while family time, mince pies, crackers, walks in the snow and the Galette des Rois are definitely in.

Wishing  you a very Bonne Année

Wishing for a very French Christmas

In the past I have spent Christmas in various countries and the way different cultures celebrate at this time of year seems to be very indicative of their priorities. So when we moved to France, I was fascinated to see what the focus of the celebration would be here. Of course, it should have been obvious – the focus is on food and eating but also on spending time en famille; all traditions which we are very happy to take on in our house.

Christmas trees decorate the streets of St Lizier

Having lived in France for seven years now though, I realise that what I enjoy most about Christmas here is that the French have not yet completely sold out to the commercial, shopping fest that has become the norm in many countries, maybe because people just do not have the money (and do not spend money they don’t have which is why France has come through the current financial crisis so much better than many countries.) 

Presents are, of course, part of the celebrations but almost as a secondary element to the culinary highlight of the Christmas meal which takes place on Christmas Eve. Moreover, Christmas decorations generally don’t go up until two weeks before the day and, here in the Ariège, the local communes organize hundreds of Christmas trees to be placed at intervals along the streets, often decorated by the local school children.

Snowy Christmas walk

Even better for us, because we are so close to the mountains, we are pretty much guaranteed a white Christmas – at least within a short drive. So either on Christmas Eve or on Boxing Day, we pile into the car with the rest of the family who generally join us in France and go up to our favourite snowy plateau for a walk, some sledging and some mulled wine and mince pies from the picnic basket (mince pies is a British tradition that we cling to but one that our French neighbours just don’t get!)

Mince pies in the Pyrenees!

Somehow the French manage to take the best bits of Christmas, discard the stress and overspending and just focus on eating, drinking and enjoying time en famille. As so often is the case, it leaves us realizing that our French friends and neighbours here have their priorities right.

Wishing you a very happy Christmas à la français.

Sunshine, not snow in the foothills of the Pyrenees

Often when I tell people that we live in the foothills of the Pyrenees, they tend to assume that we are snowbound for much of the winter. Generally they are amazed to discover that, despite the fact that our village is less than 50 kilometres from the nearest ski resort, we actually get snow only a few days a year and often winter temperatures here are much higher than those in the UK.

Winter nights and early mornings are cold and we wouldn’t be without our wood burner but we are a long way south here so the sun has real warmth in it. Winter afternoons in the sun can often reach 17 or 18 degrees (which was the case today) and we regularly sit outside to drink our coffee or enjoy lunch in the sun in February – a phenomenon I don’t ever remember experiencing in England. Snow may be causing havoc in the UK right now but here in the lee of the mountains, we are enjoying the protective Foehn effect (click this link to read the scientific explanation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foehn_wind) which means warm air and sunny days.

Snow on Mont Valier - sunshine in the valleys

What’s more, rainy winter days aren’t miserable and vaguely depressing when you live in the foothills of the mountains because we know that, while it may be raining on us, fresh snow will be falling up in the mountains with all the promise of a fabulous day skiing, sledging or snowshoeing in the sun in the days to follow.

For me this is a perfect winter location; we have sunshine and warmth on a daily basis with chilly nights providing the perfect excuse to snuggle in front of the fire with a hot chocolate.  Meanwhile, everywhere we look there is snow sparkling on the mountains with sledging, skiing and fabulous snowy walks whenever we want. The foothills of the Pyrenees truly are a winter wonderland.

Toulouse to Paris in three hours by TGV

Theatre du Capitole, Toulouse

After years of planning and negotiation, the French government has finally approved the extension of the high speed TGV service between Toulouse, Bordeaux and Paris. This will reduce the journey time between Toulouse and Paris significantly, putting Toulouse within three hours of the capital.

The plan, as it stands at the moment, is for the high speed line to be operational by 2020 with the ultimate aim of linking the Atlantic coast to the Mediterranean with a high speed rail system and also to create a high speed line to Madrid and Lisbon. You can find further information and detailed plans of the route on the Grands Projets du Sud-Ouest website:  http://www.gpso.fr/cartes.html

I for one am certainly looking forward to a few long weekends in Paris – although I am hoping that I won’t have to wait ten years until my next visit. In the meantime, there are over 30 flights per day from Toulouse to Paris operated by Air France or Easyjet to both Orly and Charles de Gaulle taking around one hour. The Capital is not so far from the foothills as it may seem.