Winter in the French countryside

At the end of every year in my little village, neighbours take turns to hold a soiree to celebrate the 12 months that have been and gone, and to honour the year ahead. Winter in the French countryside tends to be quieter than usual and get togethers are good for the life and health of the community.

My village is tiny: ‘152 people and 1000 cows’ say people when you mention its name. It’s in the middle of nowhere, in the 7 Valleys, Pas-de-Calais. If you blink as you drive down our main road, a wiggly country lane optimistically named rue principal, you might not even realise you’ve been here! No shops, no bar, and often enough – no signs of life. But behind the shutters of the houses is a thriving and close-knit community, and almost all of them are keen cooks. So when you’re invited to a party, you can be pretty sure you’ll be well fed and watered.

I am always reading in some newspaper or other that French people are somehow able to exert superhuman strength over their appetites and remain skinny. That might be true in Paris where I once saw a pencil thin woman order a bowl of lettuce for lunch – though she did flavour it with tomato ketchup! But I promise you, your average Frenchie, certainly where I live, is quite normal and able to resist anything but temptation – just like the rest of us. And at the end of the year events – we’re all perfectly capable of eating ourselves to a standstill.

For the party night, everyone gets involved by cooking something to take along to share. Big bowls of rich stew, baskets of baguettes, puffed up gougères (little pastry balloons of cheesy deliciousness), tartines, terrines and tangy tapenade, mouth-watering cakes and dainty tarts. My elderly neighbour Claudette says that when you cook good food to share at a party – it’s love made edible.

I freely admit that life in the sticks is not sophisticated, it’s simple and generally tranquil (unless a cow gets into your garden as happens once in a while). But I thank my lucky stars for the day I stumbled upon this tiny village hidden in a valley and discovered the meaning of joie de vivre.

Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France; My Four Seasons in France; Toujours La France, and How to be French: Eat, dress, travel and love la vie Française – available on Amazon, all online bookshops and in bookstores in high streets everywhere.