Les Poissonchats

It’s just so romantic

There’s the classics. Tour Eiffel sparkling in the winter night, snowflakes on Pont Neuf. Those Christmas markets in quaint little Alsatian towns and gingerbread hearts, see also door number 17. Drinking champagne and watching the waves rolling in at Biscarosse, wrapped into a warm blanket against the gale wind. Hot spiced wine at the fireplace in a chalet in Haute Savoye, eyes sparkling like the Tour Eiffel in a winter night. 

Alas, most of the time it is much more simple. A bottle of red and some French cheese, you may bring along flowers too, or chocolates. Drop all those tedious things you anyway don’t want to do (see also door no 14) and be sure to switch the telly off. Or netflix or whatever. 

Bundle up in the warmest clothes and venture outside, dance in the sleet if snowflakes are not to be had, also Pont Neuf is not a must. Life, after all is just so romantic, isn’t it, once you get the hang of it. 

This is Les Poissonchat’s Wondrous Advent Calendar! Advent calendars are a huge tradition where I come from: you make little gifts for your loved ones every day until Christmas Day, fourandtwenty little surprises. The advent calendars come in beautifully old fashioned prints on cardboard, with extra glitter, and each day there’s a paper door waiting for you to pry open. Others are more elaborate, pretty baskets filled with twenty four numbered parcels, decorated with red velvet ribbons. The one I’m making for you this season is altogether a different one, and, quite obviously, it’s about beloved France, Christmas in France, and after all, what it takes to celebrate a proper French Christmas.