As the New Year came in, my mobile phone beeped and my e-mail box filled up as messages of good will for 2010 arrived. The French put a lot of store by wishing each other a 'Bonne année', however only until the 31st of January, after this date it is bad luck. It is crucial to greet acquaintances with this formula, and being an anglo- saxon, I almost always forget. It's a little like having to say 'Bonjour' to everyone we meet. In my early days in Grenoble, I would enter the bakers or get on the bus and launch into what I wanted. The person behind the counter would interrupt me with a pointed 'Bonjour', and I would realise with shame that I had, once again, committed the 'faux pas' of not greeting properly. The same rule applies to work, where it is considered rude to scuttle to ones office without saying 'Hello' to colleagues. This culture of greeetings underlines a difference, for me, between Anglo- saxon culture which tends to get straight to the point and Gallic culture that prefers a more humane approach. I must admit it grows on you and despite the occasional gaff I do now greet people first.
Another tradition at this time of year is the 'galette des rois', literally the Kings' cake. At Epiphanie, the arrival of the Three kings honouring Jesus, the French eat a puff pastry tart filled with marzipan. The tart contains a 'feve', a small object often a figurine, the lucky finder of this object gets to be king, and wear the cardboard crown which comes with every 'galette'. My wife has just reliably informed me that the word 'feve' means bean, and is used because originally a bean was placed in the tart, the finder was supposed to plant it for a good harvest. It is not uncommon for people to invite you to their house to share a 'galette des rois', and work colleagues may sometimes share one. Often the figurines come in series and people collect the Asterix or Tintin series. At the moment the bakers and supermarkets are full of these tarts, with prices ranging from the reasonable to the scandalous.
