Fêtes en France

Due to my trip to SA just before Christmas we didn't have much time to prepare for a 'traditional' Christmas.  And what is traditional in SA is not traditional in France - except for the Christmas tree being a pine filled with decorations.  Our plant that the children donated to us last year during our house warming had to do....(without any decorations)

At least we have done the frenchy apéritif and champagne.  The children in their wisdom (or Nina trying to avoid her duty of teaching me) gave me an apéritif set that comprise a recipe book and some spoons and bowls - so I fear this was the last time I could give them apéritif purchased at Picard!

And the French buche (you get different flavours but chocolate is always a popular choice in this household!)

We left on 26 Dec on our unplanned holiday, first to Fouras, to celebrate JL's mom's birthday.  Our trip started off with a late Christmas at his sister's house, with 5 children and more grandchildren it is not easy to gather them all for a fête, hence the later date. Fortunate for us as we could celebrate a more 'traditional' Christmas!

We are fortunate to have JL's mom still around and at such good health!  Here she is with one of her great-grandchildren!
And the next day it was her birthday party, this time at JL's brother's house. Fortunately his wife is an excellent cook and can teach me some tricks!

As it was just after Christmas, the boulanger had no birthday cakes, as they only had buches.  But they were willing to put a birthday message on it.  At least these photos will give you a better idea what a buche looks like. And yes, in France you always put a candle on the cake (with the age), you can buy candles with 0-9 on it in the shop - do not think it is only for children!!

The next day we were off to Portugal, first spending a night in Salamanca, Spain, to break the long journey.  We drove 5 100 km in just under 3 weeks.  I'll try to post the photos of our trip during this week, I'll do it per town/region to keep each posting a bit shorter!