Upon returning home I found out that today out that Jan 6th is the feast of the epiphany. It is the day the three wise men or three kings came to visit the infant Jesus after his birth, a time of celebration. For every French person, the Epiphany is synonymous with the “galette des rois”, a wafer king cake which is eaten ceremoniously a few days before and after 6 January. Since the 14th century, 6 January is the day in France to “tirer les rois” (decide who is the king of the day as in the three kings). A porcelain or earthenware figurine (a charm, called “la fêve” in French) or a broad bean, is placed in a traditional flat cake called “galette” whose round shape symbolises the sun. The “Galette des Rois” is made of flaky puff pastry layers and filled with a dense centre of frangipane. The youngest member of the family goes under the table to distribute the slices to the different people sitting around the table. The person who finds the lucky charm in their slice of ‘galette’ becomes the king (or queen) of the day.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Paris: Round 1
I woke up this morning to the smell of freshly baked croissants, which proved to be a tasty, yet filling meal that prepared me well for my journey into Paris that day. My peers and I ventured into Paris via the RER public transit system, which took us all the way from the St. Germain station to LaDefense station. From the LaDefense station, we walked up into the daylight and took in the sight of the Arche de Triomphe against the morning fog. The Arche de Triomphe is a tribute to those who fought and died during the French revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. The names of the generals and the sites of key military victories are inscribed all around the exterior of the arche. The Arche is also the site of the tomb for unknown soldiers, which consists of an eternal flame that resides beneath the arche. From there we made out way to the Latin Quarter and explored the Pantheon, the Luxembourg Gardens, and a handful of other sites before we arrived at the Notre Dame and the “love locks” bridge before we hopped back on the RER and made out way to St. Germain.
Upon returning home I found out that today out that Jan 6th is the feast of the epiphany. It is the day the three wise men or three kings came to visit the infant Jesus after his birth, a time of celebration. For every French person, the Epiphany is synonymous with the “galette des rois”, a wafer king cake which is eaten ceremoniously a few days before and after 6 January. Since the 14th century, 6 January is the day in France to “tirer les rois” (decide who is the king of the day as in the three kings). A porcelain or earthenware figurine (a charm, called “la fêve” in French) or a broad bean, is placed in a traditional flat cake called “galette” whose round shape symbolises the sun. The “Galette des Rois” is made of flaky puff pastry layers and filled with a dense centre of frangipane. The youngest member of the family goes under the table to distribute the slices to the different people sitting around the table. The person who finds the lucky charm in their slice of ‘galette’ becomes the king (or queen) of the day.
Upon returning home I found out that today out that Jan 6th is the feast of the epiphany. It is the day the three wise men or three kings came to visit the infant Jesus after his birth, a time of celebration. For every French person, the Epiphany is synonymous with the “galette des rois”, a wafer king cake which is eaten ceremoniously a few days before and after 6 January. Since the 14th century, 6 January is the day in France to “tirer les rois” (decide who is the king of the day as in the three kings). A porcelain or earthenware figurine (a charm, called “la fêve” in French) or a broad bean, is placed in a traditional flat cake called “galette” whose round shape symbolises the sun. The “Galette des Rois” is made of flaky puff pastry layers and filled with a dense centre of frangipane. The youngest member of the family goes under the table to distribute the slices to the different people sitting around the table. The person who finds the lucky charm in their slice of ‘galette’ becomes the king (or queen) of the day.
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