la galette de rois

Salut!

I apologize for bombarding you with blog posts.  I promise this one is short and sweet, but it is also time sensitive, which is why I’m writing it now.

While it is not quite January 6 yet, the French have started eating their “galette de rois,” or king cake.  Today, Mireille picked one up from the patisserie, and I am proud to say that I have officially tasted my first king cake!  She explained to me the tradition of having it only around the days surrounding epiphany, and that it is typically served slightly warm.  When serving it, she says that there is one person who goes underneath the table while another person cuts the cake, and then the person under the table decides who gets the first slice.  That way, it is fair regardless if the first slice is big or small!  And, as with the tradition that I believe is better known, the baker puts a small figurine, usually a small baby Jesus, in the cake, and the person who finds the figurine is responsible for buying the cake next year.  Mireille also said that after finding the figurine, the person must wear a crown for the rest of the meal, and often children in “maternelle,” or pre-school, make crowns during their school day.

While there are multiple flavors, Mireille bought a cake that had an almond paste in the middle, and I thought it was quite delicious.  We decided not to have one of us climb under the table, and rather we just ate the slice that was closest to our plate.  And she found the figurine, although she opted not to wear the pretty plastic golden crown.  In the picture below is the cake (half eaten) with the crown and the figurine of baby Jesus.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, the French are actually paying close attention to the Iowa caucuses.  They seem to be talking about Mitt Romney quite a bit, even before his recent close victory.  I'm not quite sure if the French would prefer if Obama remains in office or if the U.S. has a new president, but I know that, generally speaking, they don't want a president like Bush and that they were very happy when Obama pulled troops out of Iraq.  In terms of the election, interestingly enough, the news shows are making a great effort to simplify and explain the election process in the U.S. to the public.  Try explaining an electoral vote to the French- its harder than you’d think!

Anyway, I’ll try not to keep throwing the blog posts at you, but keep in touch!