Christmas… the season of the ready meal..

All year round we are starved of processed food… then Christmas comes and every supermarket is offering a huge choice of ready meals.

But not ready meals as we know ready meals…. you can’t see them on the supermarket aisles. You have to order your ready meal two weeks in advance!!.. France hasn’t quite got ‘Fast Food’ !!..

All of the major supermarkets are giving away little booklets, ‘Menus de Réveillons Noël et Nouvel An’. The meals are beautifully presented on exquisite plates. You choose your meal, usually four courses, and order it from the supermarket…






I quite fancy the coffret de St Jacques’ et crevettes followed by cocotte de sole et gambas, then the pavé de veau avec ses marrons confits, les fromages et un entremet duo framboise…. but I’ve never been brave enough to place an order…

My parents are here for New Year… I wonder, if I were to order the menu de fête, could I pass it off as my handiwork?….No, I think they might guess !!

For the French Christmas was first celebrated in 496.

Christmas customs, originating in the Middle East were introduced to France by the Romans. Reims was the site of the first French Christmas celebration when, in 496, Clovis purposely chose the day of the Nativity to have his 3,000 warriors baptised.

The fir tree was first presented as the holy tree of Christmas in Strasbourg in 1605. It was decorated with artificial coloured roses and apples, and symbolised the tree in the garden of Eden.

Nowadays, family celebrations begin a few days before Christmas when candles and stars are added to the Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve, small toys, sweets and fruits are also added to the tree.

Another custom is that of the manger, ‘la crèche’, which originated in the 12^th century. Today, many families arrange a manger on a small stage in a prominent part of the house. Little terra-cotta figures are used to represent the holy family.

At midnight there is Christmas Mass, when all churches and cathedrals are magnificently lit and echo with the joyful melodies of bells and carols.

When the family returns home after midnight mass, there is a late supper known as ‘le reveillon’. This meal varies according to the region in France, in Alsace, a goose is eaten, in Burgundy, a turkey, in Brittany, galettes with sour cream and in Paris, oysters and foie gras

.

Children don’t usually attend midnight mass, but before going to bed they leave a shoe by the fireplace for ‘le pere de Noel’ to leave a gift or two !!..

French school dinners. Compulsory

At primary school you have two choices, your child can either eat their main meal at home or they can go to the school canteen, usually the village hall, for lunch.

At secondary school, as most children are a bus ride away to the nearest town with a secondary school, there is no choice, school dinner are compulsory. A packed lunch is NOT an option.

I am very impressed by the school dinners. My daughter is now into her second year of school dinners at secondary school… she gets a choice of 3 or 4 starters, then a main course which always contains meat or fish, a choice of 8 – 10 cheeses, then a choice of puddings. A school dinner in France costs €2.89.

There are 250 children in her school, (I know, it is a small secondary school by UK standards!) and every single one of these children eats a school meal. There are no children with dairy, gluten or peanut allergies. I have no answers but I am pretty sure if you took a sample of any 250 children in the UK there would be some allergies or food intolerances. Why don’t these exist in rural Brittany?

And it completely goes without saying… vegetarianism doesn’t exist in Brittany!

Will we ever see Sunday Trading in France?

Things always appeared very different across the Channel. 

While the UK has opened its shops on Sunday since 1994, the French have managed to keep most of theirs closed. The French had always seemed to grasp the notion of work-life balance - in British imagination at least. For most of the French people I know, the 35 hour week has been achieved by mid day on Friday...so the weekend starts here. Saturday is a busy day, shopping and household chores and on Sunday, everything stops... it is a family day, it is the boulangeries' busiest day for viennoiserie and patisserie. This is followed by a leisurely lunch and a walk in the country. But things are changing.

But now 20 years after the British battle was settled, a similar quarrel is bubbling in France, where different groups of workers take to the streets of Paris to argue both sides of the case. 

Recent protests about Sunday Opening

Shops in designated tourist zones can open, as can garden centres and small owner-operated shops. Those selling food are permitted half a day's trading. For the most part, though, major retailers are forced to close all day, which has angered many business leaders, and some of their workers too.

Castorama and Leroy Merlin - two major French DIY chains - have chosen to defy the ban, opening their doors to shoppers on the day of rest, and their employees have backed them. They have held "Yes Weekend" demonstrations to argue for their right to work.

Leroy Merlin defies the Sunday trading laws

With consumers now wanting shops to open on Sundays, high unemployment and the strong unions arguing against Sunday trading it will be very interesting to see where this debate goes....

Internet Shopping - Not in Reminiac

The Marie was busy this morning… a queue… but I do do think Mayors do create some unnecessary administration. Controversial. Well, now I’ve said it.

Today, I was there to arrange for Joe to have the school Christmas lunch next Thursday. The mayors’ secretary found the folder. A page per week, with five columns (Childs name, Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday) she had hand written every childs name on each page and when a child eats at the canteen she puts a cross in the relevant column. In the corner of her office is a computer… just think of the time that could be saved if this was all on a spreadsheet…. at the very least she could photocopy her hand written sheet 40 times… But then, why is the Marie arranging school dinners, could this not be done at the school?…. Now, I very rarely even ask myself these questions.. it has always been done this way.

As I waited, the postman screeched to a halt outside the Marie.

La Poste... with 27 parcels !!

‘He is late’, I remarked to Lucienne, who was waiting behind me.

‘Yes, he has 27 parcels to deliver this morning.’

Now, just HOW did she know that…’Christmas must be a busy time for them.’ I say.

‘No, it is too early to send Christmas presents’, Lucienne replies,’It is odd, I don’t know why there are so many parcels.’

‘Internet shopping’. I mumble

‘Quoi?’

‘Perhaps people are buying their presents online.’ I explain.

‘No, that just is not possible Nicole, at Christmas everyone must go to the shops to choose their gifts, how can you choose an appropriate present online?’

I nodd, reflecting that ALL of my Christmas presents this year have been bought online…. and I am sure one or two of the 27 parcels delivered today will end up in my letter box.

It is always dark when the firefighters call....

A strange tradition. During the first week in December we receive a visit from the local fire brigade.

Two fire fighters knock at the door at about 8.30pm and offer me a flimsy paper calendar for which I will pay 10 euros.

The Fire Brigade calendar...

For the last 10 years this has happened, I receive a receipt for my 10 euros and the fire fighters leave, stuffing the 10 euro note into a jacket pocket, to visit our neighbours.

I have absolutely no idea what the money is for… but what I do know, is that within a day or so, I will receive a similar visite from La Poste!..

So what do macarons and macaroni have in common?

I have just discovered a little shop in La Gacilly that sells just macarons…. and they are absolutely delicious.. tried the chocolate and the raspberry.. and not quite sure which I prefer so just about to ‘test’ them both again!..

Just macaroons....

The Macaron was born in Italy, introduced by the chef of Catherine de Medicis in 1533 at the time of her marriage to the Duc d’Orleans who became king of France in 1547 as Henry II. The term “macaron” has the same origin as that the word “macaroni” — both mean “fine dough”.

The first Macarons were simple biscuits, made of ground almonds, sugar and egg whites. Many towns throughout France have their own prized tale surrounding this delicacy. In Nancy, the granddaughter of Catherine de Medici was supposedly saved from starvation by eating Macarons. In Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the macaron of Chef Adam regaled Louis XIV and Marie-Therese at their wedding celebration in 1660.

Only at the beginning of the 20th century did the Macaron become a “double-decker” affair. Pierre Desfontaines, the grandson of Louis Ernest Laduree (Laduree pastry and salon de the, rue Royale in Paris) had the idea to fill them with a “chocolate panache” and to stick them together.
Since then, French Macaron cookies have been nationally acclaimed in France.

Need to identify a gas leak.... look no further

162 what ???

These signs are all over Brittany, by the roadside, in the middle of fields, they can be found anywhere and everywhere.

For the last fifteen years I have been curious about these triangular yellow signs poking up from the ground. They all have different numbers and the numbers don’t seem to relate to each other… a real puzzle… but now I have solved the mystery…

They are gas line markers.

I wasn’t aware that France used a lot of gas… in our part of Brittany gas isn’t used at all, wood, oil and electricity are the main forms of energy, oh, and of course bottled gas is used for most cookers but I don’t think the gas in these pipes will be used to fill up my blue cooker gas bottle…
France has a HUGE gas network involving more than 35 750 km of pipeline. Not only does France transport gas, it stores it as well.

In Europe, the gas industry has developed huge storage capacity inside salt cavities, unused mines, worked out gas or oil fields, or even in geological aquifers. Natural gas is injected under pressure and then drawn more or less easily according to the characteristics of the storage tank.

In France, there are three storage sites located in salt cavities and 12 in aquifers.


Ok, so France is a pretty big player in the gas industry and these little yellow signs all help in the smooth flow of gas and are, I guess important for identifying the location of any leaks.

La Maison Rose – finished and available to let!!

After just over a year of renovation La Maison Rose is finished….

La Maison Rose

La Maison Rose is a 2 bedroomed house which comfortable sleeps 4. It is now available to rent from £185 per week.
See all the photos on the website, www.frenchgites.com

Lounge, La Maison Rose

Kitchen. La Maison Rose