We were very lucky this season to be invited to two important New Year celebrations in France, le Réveillon (feast on New Year's Eve) and la Fête des Rois (Epiphany).
Le Réveillon
We were invited to a Réveillon for New Year's Eve by our next door neighbors, the Nguyens. We are very lucky to live in an area with such friendly neighbors. Can you believe that the two little boys who live next door love Ben 10 and Spiderman too?! Meet the Nguyens!
 |
| Françoise & Thien |
 |
| Gaius with Damien and Julien |
The word Réveillon comes from the word réveil, or "waking" because if you are invited, you must stay awake until midnight and beyond. We arrived at 8 pm and ate and drank our way through the four hours until Midnight! Can you believe it? The food was amazing! We were served fois gras, a delicious Mousse de Coquilles Saint-Jacques (scallops), stuffed pintade (guinea fowl), a sparkling wine from the Loire, two bottles of the real-deal (champagne from Champagne) and a 15-year old bottle of Bordeaux! There was also a cheese course which we forced ourselves to skip, as well as dessert.
It was my cousin Nicole's last night in France. So glad her last night here was such a memorable one!
 |
Ma Cousine Nicole
(look at Françoise's beautiful table setting) |
 |
| La Famille Del Negro on the last night of the year |
 |
| Mousse de Coquille Saint-Jacques |
look at how well little kids use utensils in France
 |
| delicious! |
La Fête des Rois
On the first Sunday of the Year, the French celebrate Epiphany with a Galette des Rois, or King Cake. It's a wonderful tradition that you may be familiar with if you've ever been to New Orleans, where they have their King Cake during Mardi Gras. In the North of France, the cake is made with puffed pastry and filled with Frangipane (almond paste). Inside, is hidden une fève, a favor. (A long time ago, the favor was a broad bean.) In our cake there were two fèves. Whoever finds the fève in their slice of cake is crowned the King or Queen for the day!
 |
| la galette des rois |
 |
| la fève |
We were invited to share a Galette des Rois by our landlords, Jean and Mylène. Another family from the neighborhood was also there, and as it turns out, their little boy, Axel is in Gaius' class at Courcelle Maternelle. Gaius really enjoyed having a friend to play with at the party!
 |
| Laurent, Me, Mylène, Valerie, Christopher, Gaius, Axel and Elliot (le chien) |
I have actually met Laurent and Valerie before the party. Laurent is a Pompier (fireman) and he walks Axel to school every morning. I met Valerie one day while I was out shoe shopping with Gaius. They are a very nice family.
Little kids play an important role in the festivities. To ensure that the pieces of cake are randomly distributed, the youngest child (in this case, both Gaius and Axel played a part) sits under the table and says who gets the next piece.
 |
| Gaius and Axel under the table, decide who gets the next piece of cake |
 |
| Mylène slices up the Galette des Rois |
 |
| King Axel |
 |
| Jean and Gaius |
A little bit of trivia for you. The Galette des Rois that is served to the French President at Elysée Palace does not contain a fève because it would be inappropriate for the President to be crowned king in France. When you slice up the galette des rois, you are supposed to slice one piece extra and give it to the first poor person who comes to your home. We were greedy. We ate it all!
To cap off the evening with a bang, Jean played guitar for Gaius. The highlight of the evening was watching Gaius play the Fender Stratocaster (for real). Click here for the video. Jean, I apologize for not asking you to sign the release (signer un décharge) for this video. :)
à bientôt!
4 comments:
You are such a wonderful storyteller! I look forward to each blog/
What fun! The food - wow! Champagne from Champagne - double wow!
xxoo
GAB
Aloha Heather! Happy New Year! Got your email about responding to your blog...hope it works! What an exciting evening of spending new year! The tradition you, Christopher and Gaius learn while living in France! Eating, wine, and champagne for celebrating new year! And, the tradition of the "king cake" (we know about the king cake, because we have been in NO)! We love reading your blogs! Keep posting! Enjoy your year! Kealoha and blessings, Mama Linn and Uncle Glenn
What cool parties? We seriously need to move to France so we can get invited to these awesome shindigs. No one parties in Seattle, we were out like a light by midnight. We had to wake X up at 12, otherwise he would have snored away the New Year!
Post a Comment