The newsletter that brings France to you!

I hope that you and yours are well.

This week in my part of France we’ve had snow, sun, rain, cloud, hail, blue skies and fog – the weather gods are certainly having fun.

La Chandeleur is coming up next week – 2 February – pancake day here in France! The Fête de la Chandeleur (Candlemas in the English language) is when pretty much everyone in France gets to feast on crêpes though no-one knows why for sure. It’s an ancient tradition, and some say it goes back almost 1500 years when Pope Gelasius I offered pancakes to pilgrims.

I’ll be back just in time for the event from the French Alps where I am going to walk in the snow, meet goats and huskies and make a snow angel, a dream come true for me (I’ll be posting on Instagram so come with me). I’ll be whipping up a batch of the French style skinny crêpes (fail proof recipe below), and I’ll get the low down on what the season has in store from our very own Punxsutawney Phil. If you’ve seen the film Groundhog Day, you’ll know that a cute groundhog emerges from his cosy winter den in Pennsylvania, America, to predict the weather each year on 2 February – mid-winter. If he can’t see his shadow it means an early spring. Well where I live, we have Jean-Claude, my neighbour also known as Monsieur Partout – Mr. Everywhere as he seems to be everywhere you go in the village!

Jean-Claude, who is not cute, will emerge from his cosy farmhouse on 2 February to predict the weather as he does every day when we talk past with our dogs. When I first moved to this village, I used to believe everything he said, he claims his forecasts are based on ant and frog spawn activity but I now know from his wife that they are in fact based on his imagination and red wine. Very occasionally he gets his hunches right, and we are au fait with his ways and assume that whatever he says it will most likely be wrong. With the weather we’ve had lately though, he has a good chance of at least getting the short term forecast right!

I wish you a warm and cosy weekend wherever you are,

Bisous from chilly France

Janine
Editor
Read the whole newsletter and see this week’s top features and recipe picks

Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France all available as ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online. Her new book How to be French – a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre, is out now – a look at the French way of life.

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