Happy galette des rois weekend

Bonjour

I hope that you and yours are well and that you’ve had a good start to 2024.

My year has started with heaps of rain, a leaking kitchen roof, soggy dogs, cats, ducks and chickens; it could be worse, I’m grateful it’s not. And there is always cake!

Today, 6 January, is the feast of the Galette des Rois in France – the Kings’ Cake. Its origins go back many centuries, it’s the date of the Epiphany, one of the oldest festivals of Christianity, which primarily commemorates the visit of three kings to the baptism of Jesus. But the eating of cake on that date goes back further in time, to Roman times – a tribute to the God of Weather – Saturn, when slaves were invited to share a cake with their owners. The cake contained a bean and whoever got it was named “Prince of Saturn” and for the rest of the day they could have what they wanted. Over time the celebrations merged.

Here in my little village, some people make their own Galette des Rois – a puff pastry pie filled with almond paste within which is hidden a fève – a tiny trinket that replaced the Roman bean. Whoever gets it in their slice becomes ‘King’ or ‘Queen’, and wears a paper crown for a day (or goes to the dentist if they’re not careful). Me – I get my Galette des Rois from Bread Man who delivers cakes and croissants, baguettes and boules (big round loaves) to the villages all around.

Bread Man is a collector of fèves. It’s quite a popular thing in France and there’s even a word for it – fabophille, or favophille. Many of the famous patisserie makers create their own fèves – Ladurée and Pierre Hermé for instance. Fèves come in all shapes. Tiny celebrities – Lady Gagas, Disney characters, teeny suitcases, furniture, flowers and food. Bread Man says that he started collecting them as a kid, and the excitement of finding the treasure in the cake is partly what made him want to become a baker.

At first he just collected from his friends and family but then his passion grew, and he started buying them at flea markets, and he now has more than 1000 fèves stored on shelves in a glass cabinet. That’s nothing compared to a lady who lives in Alsace and has more than 182,000 of them!

I have just 20 fèves, one for each precious year I have had a home in the middle of nowhere, rural northern France.

I hope that you have a great 2024 and that your plans and dreams to visit France come true and that you find plenty of inspiration on the website and in The Good Life France Magazine.

Bisous
Janine
Editor
Read the whole newsletter and see this week’s top feature and recipe picks

Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France all available as ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online. Her new book How to be French – a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre, is out now – a look at the French way of life.

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