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american, crepe, europe, expat, foodie, france, french, French cuisine, Girl, holidays, le figaro, le figaro in english, paris, travel, valentine's day
15 Wednesday Feb 2012
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american, crepe, europe, expat, foodie, france, french, French cuisine, Girl, holidays, le figaro, le figaro in english, paris, travel, valentine's day
01 Wednesday Feb 2012
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american, bakery, boulangerie, cake, expat, foreigner, france, French cuisine, galette, Girl, holidays, paris, pastry, tradition, travel
Today, I was walking the work when I glanced in the nearby bakery window. What I saw caught me by surprise. The golden, frangipane-filled galette de rois had been replaced by stacks of fresh crêpes. A sure sign that time was passing (faster than I thought imaginable) and the Epiphany season had officially given way to Mardi Gras season, Fête de Rois was giving way to Chandeleur, or Candlemas, which is tomorrow.
And as the holidays change, the traditional pastries change, too. While the perfectly golden, crusty, almond-y galette de rois is reserved for the Feast of the Kings or Epiphany, which falls in January, February is the time for steaming stacks of crêpes for Chandeleur.
Don’t get me wrong, I am really frickin’ excited about crêpe season. Like, really. But like all of life, like the passage of the seasons and the passage of years, moving on also means giving something up. My short and sweet (very sweet) fling with the galette de rois is over. Until next year.
I have been meaning to write about this uncanny affair all month. Before this January, I had never before had a galette de rois or celebrated the holiday that comes along with it. I have to admit something: I wasn’t excited at first. Because (I know this is blasphemy) but I don’t really like flaky pastries. I know. Here I am in Paris and I don’t like croissants or pain au chocolat. Sorry. And the galette de rois seemed awfully similar.
When one of my best friends was visiting from the US, a Parisian friend (lets call her “my Parisian grandma”) gave us each an enormous slice of the pastry. On her last evening here, we had it with chilled rosé and basically died of pleasure.
My love affair had started. Like the best affairs, it was short, sweet and very intense. At the beginning of January, I had never tasted a galette de rois, now as the month comes to a close, I have to admit that I have eaten it on… one, two, three… seven occasions. And several of those occasions included multiple slices.
There was the late morning slump in the newsroom suddenly brightened when a colleague opened up a bakery box, there were the individual cakes (another gift from my “Parisian grandma”) shared as a late night snack when my sister was here, there was the glamorous lunchtime celebration in a covered courtyard presided over by the head of Le Figaro and accompanied by champagne (it pays to be an intern sometimes) and there was the snowy morning slices with my “adoptive” French family. All of this culminated in a baking lesson where I learned to make the traditional cake with my Parisian grandma, rolling out the thin pastry dough and watching it raise to incredible, golden heights in the oven.
It isn’t just the cake that’s fun… the tradition is fun, too. The cake is cut and the youngest member of the family hides under the table. This got extremely ridiculous considering as I was never in a galette de rois situation with little kids. My French “sister” (age 14) was pretty much the youngest it got. Other times, it was someone in their twenties giving up all dignity in the name of tradition. In any case, as the server picks up each slice, the youngest calls out who will get it from under the table. That is supposed to ensure that is completely up to chance whoever gets the fève hidden inside.
Did I tell you about the fève? The fève is a little lucky figurine baked into the cake. Whoever gets it is supposed to have a lucky year.
My friends admitted to me that they were terrified of getting the fève when they were in elementary school. If you got the fève, you were nominated king (or queen) and… horror of horrors… you had to choose your ruling partner from among your classmates. Basically, you were going to get teased the rest of the year no matter WHO you picked.
This January, I did finally get the fève… but considering how many pieces I had eaten by the end of January, the ratio was pretty good.
17 Tuesday Jan 2012
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american, champs élysée, christmas, expat, france, Girl, holidays, journalist, new year, paris
Bonne année! Happy New Year to all of my lovely blog readers. I am hoping that 2012 brings you all magic and good times.
I have to report that mine has already been full of wonderful adventures and hilarious mishaps… as seems to be the continuing trends of my life. I haven’t blogged for awhile (I took a break during my short stay in the US) and when I returned, I had internet problems.
But now, the wifi and I are back and ready to take 2012 by storm. Expect a few posts over the next few days… I have lots to catch up on! Check out the photo below… it shows the Champs on New Year’s Eve!
18 Sunday Dec 2011
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afkc, american, blog, christmas, expat, france, french, Hanukkah, holidays, le figaro, le figaro in english, noel, paris, travel
Dear Readers:
The holidays are here!
I, for one, am home with my family for Christmas. Even though there is no magic like Paris at Noël nothing beats being home for the holidays.
That doesn’t mean that I will stop blogging… actually, it will give me a chance to catch up! I have lots of things that I have been meaning to do with this blog that I will work on during the holidays, in between bouts of cookie baking, snowflake making and all the rest of it, of course. I’ll be getting an early start on New Year’s Resolutions!
That said, this week, I have three calls to YOU.
1. First of all, while you have a little extra time during the holidays, make sure to check out the Web site of the Alliance Française of Kansas City, the organization that sponsors this blog. While I have been running around Paris, they have been up to lots of good stuff in the Midwest involving pastries, French language and more! Don’t miss out!
2. The second call is from me, the blogger. It is about time for a review of my blog. If you have questions for me or subjects that you would like to see covered, please leave them as comments. You have been a fantastic group of truly participative readers! Now let me know what I can do better!
3. The final call is from me, the Le Figaro intern. Send me (at lefigaroinenglish@lefigaro.fr) photos of a Francophone Christmas abroad (like those of the Fête des Lumières by the AFKC) or an expat Christmas celebrated in France. We’d also love Hanukkah, New Years or other winter celebration photos. Some will even be published on the Le Figaro in English site!
Love,
B
18 Sunday Dec 2011
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afkc, american, buche, cake, christmas, cooking, cuisine, french, holidays, journalist, kansas city, paris, pastry, tradition
The bûche de Noël is a traditional log-shaped cake that the French eat on Christmas Eve. As the holidays grow closer, you can see these whimsically decorated cakes all over. Some, like these, are tiny while others are large and meant for sharing!
Speaking of sharing, the AFKC hosted a Francophone Christmas event, the Fêtes de Lumières 2011, a few weeks ago. Check out the photos of this magical event— you don’t have to be in Paris to celebrate French culture! It isn’t too late to taste traditional French holidays with AFKC. The French celebrate the Fête de Rois (Feast of the Three Kings) in January and the AFKC is hosting a cake tasting event on January 7! If you are in the area, check out all the events!
12 Monday Dec 2011
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american, cevenol school, christmas, French election, holidays, interview, journalism, journalist, le figaro, le figaro in english, paris, photo
One of our main goals for Le Figaro in English is to start having more and more original content.
For me, that kind of goal is a dream come true. I am a journalist because I love stories. As much as I adore working with articles that are already written in French, there is nothing like crafting my own pieces.
Two weeks ago, I published an original interview. But this week marked my very first article. I wrote it on a subject very specific to our site: Americans in Paris and how they are preparing for the American elections. The political angle was even more tailored to Le Figaro: it is, above all, the newspaper specialized in all things political.
The second project I published is something I just really, really, really wanted to do. Which meant that in order to make my proposal better, I had been amassing photos of a Parisian Christmastime for weeks (trust me, I did not need extra incentive to hit up every Christmas market and every glittering street and store window.) My idea was to start a photo slideshow of the magic of the holidays in Paris and to build it up with photos from readers. As Le Figaro in English is online only (for the moment), our internet community IS OUR community. That direct contact means that we can reach out to them and ask them to participate. My hope with this Christmassy project is to really hear back from our public and learn a little about them.
When I finally suggested it to my boss, I already had all the original photos ready (hint to journalists and other entrepreneurs: having everything ready in advance really advances your point.) in any case, my boss liked the project, and I was over the moon. It was official. I made a slideshow of my best photos and launched the call to our readers for their photos (Blog Readers, I totally encourage YOU to participate, too !)
I left work with a happy holiday glow for lots of reasons!
12 Monday Dec 2011
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inLast week was a week of early Christmas presents for me.
One by one, lots of things came together in unexpected ways.
I launched not one, but TWO, original pieces for Le Figaro in English.
My social life at Le Figaro took off in unexpected ways.
And, against all odds, I finally have a carte de séjour—a residency card.
And lots of others things that aren’t worthy of entire blog entries (but are worthy of personal victory dances and emails to my sister full of exclamation marks) happened, too.
The magic of Paris at holiday time is just irrepressible. I am continually awed by the shimmering decorations, the magnificent confections and the glittering lights.
And it sure feels like that Christmas pixie dust has rubbed off on my life, too.