Les Poissonchats

Indulgence

Winter is a harsh time now what with the cold and the days so very short, it does feel like perpetual nightfall except when it’s fallen, then it feels like the darkest of nights, and it’s just so very cumbersome having to wear so many clothes only to stay warm. Therefore, it is very important to spoil yourself and, for that matter, those around you, after all it’s December which is the month of excelling in the art of extra magnanimity (see also door number 10), and there’s one thing that regularly out-excels everything: Le Chocolat Chaud. There’s a gazillion ways of preparing it, I’m sure you have your very own special, mine is no-milk-no-cream and a very extra sip of cognac instead. The full recipe is in my book. 

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.