Sunday, January 08, 2006

La Galette des Rois


That's it, I am back from my ski holidays in the Alpes, right on time to share a Galette des Rois with a couple of friends. This Galette is intended to celebrate the Epiphany (the day the 3 wise men, called Les Rois Mages in French are supposed to have visited the Christ). It is made of puff pastry and can be plain or filled with frangipane, an almond-flavoured paste. Around the 6th of january (the official Epiphany date), you can find many Galettes in all French bakeries. They always come with a paper crown for inside each galette there is a Fève - a sort of lucky charm which originally was a bean and can now be virtually anything - and whoever finds the Fève in his slice of galette becomes King or Queen and has to wear the crown! (More on this tradition here)

16 comments:

  1. Your photo today brought back more great memories for me. We celebrated this tradition with our French friends in LeBourget in 2000. My husband got the "charm"...a lovely ceramic nativity....and wore the crown as King. Guess that made "me" his Queen.

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  2. Wow "Alpes", how cool is that!!!!!!

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  3. Don't forget the apple ones! I tried a scrumptious one yesterday, with apples and raisins. Good thing I was with many friends, or I would have eaten the whole thing myself!!!

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  4. bonjour, je viens souvent voir les photos que vous publiez.
    Pour l'épiphanie souvent dans les familles la personne la plus jeune doit se glisser sous la table et désigner celui à qui ira la part de galette pour éviter que les personnes ne trichent et ne désignent un roi autrement que par le hasard. je trouve cela amusant
    amicalement

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  5. Makes me hungry to see those. Fantastic photo.

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  6. Yum! I love this tradition. Actually, I love any tradition that has food involved!

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  7. This looks good and fun. I think they do/did something similar in New Orleans. Is it unique to France or French culture, or does it exist in other countries?

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  8. Daily pictures are a good way to get to know a city. You may be interested of these of mine
    http://www.portvilatoday.blogspot.com/
    http://stkildatoday.blogspot.com/
    http://todaymelbourne.blogspot.com/
    regards, Michael

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  9. Welcome back, Eric! Tout va bien, rien de cassé? ;-)

    (Ah, la galette... yeah, memories for me too)

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  10. Mmmm, I can just taste these...I just dream of sitting and having pastries in Paris...someday.

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  11. Wow I never knew about these :) I see you're a fan of Mozart Requiem. What about Brahms Requiem? I LOVE it and have sung it a few times :) Just wondering...

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  12. I love this tradition, reminds me of the excitement of being a kid and chewing through my piece hoping to bite on the fève (and not swallow it), while watching everyone else to see if someone else got it. So competitive! I do so miss the pastries. Sniff.

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  13. To answer Patti, yes there are similar things in other cultures. Here in Spain we have the Roscón de Reyes (Crown of Kings) - also with a crown and with a bean and surprises inside.

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  14. vous avez tire les rois ? who was the queen ?...;-))

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  15. Any idea where we can find a galette des rois in Los Angeles? I've been living there for the past 4 years but never found a place to buy one (a good one!)
    Thanks for your recommendations!

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