Another Christmas

Another Christmas

This Christmas will be the first I've spent in France but, apart from the absence of my mother and the ritual lunch-time visit to the pub, probably not that different to other recent Christmases. The French celebrate Christmas very much as we do in the UK, with the focus on family and children.

Two differences are the absence of the ubiquitous turkey in England and the lack of Christmas cards. There doesn't seem to be a standard main course meal here although, if one is more common than others, it would probably be duck; I've no idea if that is local to the south of France or more widespread. And foie gras and smoked salmon seem to feature very commonly as first courses, as also do oysters. I noticed in the supermarkets the sudden appearance of carp, which suggests to me the existence of a sizeable Polish population in the area. In Polish households no one can take a bath for a week before Christmas as that is where the carp is, getting rid of it's muddy flavour before being cooked. Newly in the supermarkets too are “cardes”, stems of a thistle that look like celery on steroids. I haven't seen it growing so can't tell what type of thistle it is; one of my dictionaries suggests teasel but it doesn't look like that to me. I don't know whether it is specific to Christmas or simply just available now as, for instance, are persimmons.

The desert here is traditionally some or all of the 13 prescribed constituents that I think I described last year. That, certainly, is local to Provence. Although dried fruits feature prominently on shop shelves, their combination into Christmas cake or pudding doesn't seem to figure in France. The German Stollen is available in shops but that is as near as it gets.

Christmas cards are virtually unobtainable; the ones I sent this year were left over from those I had in England. It is traditional, although not always practised, to send new year cards. These are pale substitutes for English Christmas cards, generally looking like half-size postcards and mostly poorly designed and executed.. Maybe Hallmark or some similar company should get busy over here.

The group of us who sing carols had been busily rehearsing for the past few weeks and duly performed last evening. The event went off very well, largely due to the efforts of Jo and René, with increased numbers of people attracted to it. Even Steve did a solo, which also went well; he's a brave man. I did my usual growling in the background ( at least I hope it was in the background).

I personally was a bit disappointed that we didn't attract more of the villagers outside of friends; there were a few but most of them were already in the bar. I'm beginning to think that this one of my ambitions may be misplaced. Those of us who sang did so because it was fun. However, carols are religious by nature and I suspect that fun may not be a word that can be associated with religion, at least in this part of France. It could be that religion here is too serious a matter, one way or the other. This area did suffer atrociously during the wars of religion but that seems too long ago to have much resonance now. So maybe it is just the separation of state and religion that is at play.