La Galette des Rois

Posted by Rosie

On Sunday we went up to the village hall for the annual Galette des Rois, basically an excuse to eat a rather nice but fattening almond pie and drink a glass or two of wine and Calvados. Meaning King Pie, the Galette was traditionally eaten on Epiphany or Twelth Night to celebrate the arrival of the Kings to Jesus' stable but is now more often eaten throughout January. Families, or like us, villagers, gather to eat the Galette and see who will be lucky enough to win the little token or feve hidden within. Who-ever gets the feve wins a crown and becomes King or Queen for the day. Originally the feve was a bean (feve is the french for broad bean) but as the winner was expexted to buy everyone a round o fdrinks, people took to swallowing the bean so in the 19 century the bean was replaced by a small ceramic figure.

The boys had already eaten 2 Galettes before Sunday, at a friend's house and at school. On both occassions Tom had won the feve but Ben had been unlucky. Tom's luck had run out though on Sunday and it was our neighbout, Mme Milcent who was crowned Queen and wore her crown with pride.

The friends who cooked us a Galette last week also gave me the recipe and I hope to cook my own soon. And just to avoid a confusion, you will also see Galette on the menu at Creperies as a Galette then, is a rather delicious thin savoury pancake. They are equally nice and proably a lot less fattening!