Galette with glee

You have to love things here in France sometimes. In the UK the 6th January signifies the day on which all your Christmas decorations must have been taken down. After which date, if they are still up, it is supposed to be back luck. So all those brightly lit houses with hundreds of reindeers, santas, snowmen, sparkling lights and Christmas trees outside return to looking grey and drab. I always remembered that time of year during the Christmas school holidays, it was so sad when all the Christmas decorations had to be taken down and all of a sudden the house just looked normal, worse still it looked dull and sad.

In France, the 6th January is the Epiphany, the day they celebrate the visit of the three kings. In bakeries around France they sell a "Galette", a puff pastry almond flavored cake in which is hidden a little token, or "fève" which literally means broad bean. There used to be a bean hidden in the cake now it is more some kind of a plastic figurine or token. If you find this little present in your bit of cake (hoping that you have not choked on it!) then you become "the king". Galettes are indeed sold with a cardboard crown so the person who becomes the king wears the crown. Then, if my understanding of this tradition is correct, the king may then choose his queen and pass on the crown. It is also supposed to be the case that the person who is the king is the one who buys the galette the following year.

I've celebrated the "Fête des rois" three times since I arrived in France. The first time it was a neighbour who invited me and other neighbours around. I didn't understand the tradition back then but I wasn't going to say no to cake!

This year we bought out own little galette and a bottle of cider to go with it. We cut the galette in two and both ate a slice. Neither had found the galette. It then became a race to find who would be the king, whilst ensuring that the other did not cheat by trying to look between the layers of pastry or press to hard on their slice to see if there was something hidden (adults, us?). In the end it was I who found the "fève" but as Monsieur was the only other person there he became my King, obviously! All the more so as I have a deceptively big head and the crown kept falling off (a bad sign perhaps?). Monsieur took the role very seriously and took great pleasure in acting the part, "one wishes to have the remote control" for example. I really think that if he could have done he would have worn it to bed!

Anyway, whilst the lights on the Champs Elysées are still sparkling, the celebrations have finished and its back to work.
Roll on Easter!