galette des rois
While in the States the holiday season has been over and forgotten about for nearly a week now, things are still going strong here in France. Today, January 6th, is the Epiphany, the day the 3 Kings arrived to see the baby Jesus. In France, the Epiphany is celebrated with a Galette des Rois- a special “kings cake” made of layers of puff pastry and filled with frangipane (an almond-flavored paste). Although pretty yummy by itself, the highlight of the Galette des Rois is finding the fève. The fève is a small, ceramic figurine which is buried in the cake. Whoever finds the fève in their slice of cake gets to wear a paper crown and be King (or queen) for the day. I can imagine that in the U.S. a hard, pointy figurine baked into a cake would be considered a safety risk, but that’s not at all the case here in France, with lines of galette-hungry customers snaking out of every bakery that you pass.
laissez les bon temps rouler!
If you want to take part in the festivities, why not try this simple Galette des Rois recipe at home? A quick search on ebay pulls up a small (and pricey) selection of French fèves, but you can also do like they do in New Orleans and bake a small plastic baby in the King Cake instead. You can find the mini babies at any store that sells baby shower decorations. Vive le roi et vive la reine!
I really don’t know what happened to me this year. I feel like it was the middle of October, I blinked, and then it was a few days before Christmas- and I’ve barely made it through my gift list, let alone sat down to write out holiday cards (don’t you just hate when that happens?). Luckily, in France I get a reprieve of sorts. Here, instead of sending Christmas cards, it’s more popular to send New Year’s cards. I absolutely love this little gift of time. New Year’s wishes can arrive up to a few weeks after the 1st of the year, which means that I can take my time writing them, and my family and friends can receive and enjoy them away from all of the crazy mayhem of the “normal” holiday season. In France, you can find New Year’s Cartes de Voeux at any card shop this time of the year. Online, I like moo.com for funky and modern cards, or ooprint.fr for more traditional or corporate cards. In the U.S., I recently saw that Wedding Paper Divas has a nice line of New Year’s cards in their Tiny Prints line. Honestly, it’s a great way to relieve some of the holiday pressure, and a nice little Frenchy tradition to adopt as your own.
cartes de voeux, french new years cards
This is a little teaser for the holiday giveaway contest that will start tomorrow. I was doing a bit of year-end cleaning, and found a couple of these super-sweet “Parisian Party Girl” ornaments left over from last Christmas, so I’ve decided to host a competition in order to find them a home. The rules will be posted at the same time, of course, but I wanted to share some photos of the prize in order to entice you. Be sure to check back here tomorrow to find out how this Parisian Party Girl can be all yours!
parisian party girl ornament
