Bonjour
Hope you had a good week, not too fraught with last minute shopping and rushing about.
Here in my corner of rural France there isn’t a great deal of razzmatazz, there aren’t hundreds of lights on houses or in the streets, in fact, you could drive through my village and you wouldn’t even know it was Christmas.
Inside the houses though, my neighbours will be busy baking cakes and tarts. They’ll have cheeses picked with care from the fromagerie, oysters from the poissonerie and bretzels from the bakery. There will be crystalised fruits, dates and nuts from the market. Someone will be despatched to collect a fresh baguette – even on Christmas Day lots of boulangeries are open in the morning to ensure customers are kept happy and get their bread fix.
Traditionally the big celebration here is on Christmas Eve with a long, long dinner at which there are several courses served with wine and Champagne and maybe Christmas beer, a speciality of northern France. It’s a time to get together with friends and family and to relax.
Whatever you have planned, where ever you are, I wish a very merry Christmas, happy holidays and time to chill out and enjoy this festive time of the year.
Bisous from France
Janine
Editor
