Les Poissonchats

Oysters Oysters, of course oysters. After all, it’s the month of December, which is an excellent month to have oysters.  I remember when I was a kid and each year around Christmas and New Year they sold oysters at the fish stand and mother would buy a dozen and ask the guy to open them Read more

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 Read more

Soupe à Oignons You ever heard of the Hiver Noir? That’s the Black Winter, and it’s a thing in Paris, especially of the 19th century. When any attempt at snow was turned into a blackish slush, curtsy of the the myriad coalburners keeping the beautiful yet airy Parisian apartments from turning its inhabitants to ice. Read more

Saint Nicolas Today we celebrate the Saint Nicolas, especially out here in the upper east of France. He comes to give you chocolates and other little niceties, however, if you’ve been naughty, watch it for his friend Le Père Fouettard who is said to have an inexorable penchant for decently spanking even the most ardent Read more

No fretting in French It is Monday, which, to a wide number of the populace, is a reason for fretting. Yet not so in France. There is no fretting on Mondays in France. Neither on Tuesdays, for that matter, or on any other day of the week. In fact, there is no fretting in French.  Read more

Joseph still bows to the pillar Another quintessential ingredient to a Very Merry French Christmas is the Crèche de Noel. The Nativity Scene. You just simply must visit one, the path to a French Christmas irremediably leads past the Nativity Scene. Usually they’re put up in churches or, out here in the countryside, in the Read more