I'm dreaming of a white CHRISTMAS!

Yes, dream on, because it RAINED at Christmas. For the first time in my life, I had a RAINY CHRISTMAS. I wanted snow so badly!

Real deal maple syrup! Sooooo goooood!!

Victoria (Canadian who lives 20 minutes from me) stayed over for a couple of nights and helped me make a mountain of lamingtons as presents for all the families I was going to for Christmas! We also had Canadian pancakes for breakfast with amazing maple syrup, yuuuum.

We are a LAMINGTON MACHINE.

Loudun even had a little Christmas market for the weekend, with gooses running everywhere, free ice-skating, stalls selling local produce and stuff like that, and also (best of all) a waffle shop!

Sheep dog (goose dog?)

Ice skating!

The town hall (and decos)

Pony rides

Mulled wine

We even got free fouées and mulled wine because Rotary was running a stall! Mulled wine is amazing, warms up the soul...

Santa giving out lollies in the street (though we nearly ran him over cos he wouldn't get off the road)

Christmas #1! Starting early, the 23rd. Chez Jacques, a member of Loudun Rotary Club. He has a massive house not far from Loudun, and nearly all of his children and grandchildren were there, plus me, so we had 19 at the table. Not bad!

Crackers with crappy toys and bad jokes are international

Here's a weird cultural difference: in France, instead of sharing your cracker with the person next to you or whoever, everyone does the cracker with THEMSELVES! Just one hand on each end. I got so confused when we started doing crackers, why was everyone being so selfish...? But apparently that's normal.

Foie gras...goose liver. French guilty pleasure #59830524

This was the first Christmas, or just the first day of my life, where I'd eaten "sanglier". That's wild boar. WILD BOAR CHRISTMAS LUNCH, OH YEAH!

Wild boar - and it was pretty good, too!

The thing about traditional French Christmas lunches... is that they last FOR HOURS. We started around 1, finished a bit before 5pm? I don't remember what Australian Christmasses are like so I can't compare (that's another worrying thing... can't remember anything about Australia. Hmm).

Fromage (one of two plates, we need more choice than THAT, it's Christmas!)

Christmas lunch order: Nibblies. Foie gras. Oysters (if there are any). Main course, meat and veggies. Cheese. Dessert (usually a Christmas log - is that called a Yule Log or something?). Coffee/tea to finish off. And all of this takes AT LEAST 4 hours.

Pony rides in town

Ready for Christmas dinner that night

Jacques and Brigitte Deram, whose house I was at

Chez Candela/Turlais

Christmas #2! This one was at my current host family's house, with Marie-Anne, Jade, Catherine, Gina and Sylvain (other 2 host siblings who don't live at home). It was also Christmas Eve! It was pretty low-key (like any other Christmas Eve I've had, normality can be good), we just had heaps of platters of nibblies-type food, then when we were stuffed so full no one could eat anymore, we had a break and did present-giving!

Gildas, my oldest host brother, is in Germany so we skyped him and gloated
about having Christmas as a family while he was all alone, poor thing!

Serving the homemade Christmas log

Christmas #3! On Christmas day (after skyping with the fam in the morning, naturally) I was at the Rotary club president's house, with his children/grandchildren. Now THIS was a long lunch - with foie gras, oysters, l'oie aux marrons (goose with chestnuts), une buche, the whole shebang!

There was a big ceremony of present-giving before the meal, while we were having nibblies.

Then it was OYSTER TIME. I would like to just add that normally... I don't eat oysters. Just looking at them is enough to put me off. Everyone asked me if I liked oysters, and I was was kind of like, "I'll...try them...?" I ended up eating THREE. I ATE THREE OYSTERS, EVERYONE. Obviously there was no way I was finishing my plate of TEN like everyone else (14 at the table, 10 oysters per person, times that by how many Christmas lunches were happening in France... they eat a lot of oysters here), but I was pretty proud of myself for managing that many. Spread the word, everyone.

Oysters upon oysters upon oysters...

This log (it's called a "buche", sounds much better than a log) wasn't homemade like the others but it's was pear and caramel-flavoured and deeeeelish.

A couple of days ago I went and visited my first host family (Sylvie was working and nothing special happening at Christmas for them, according to her) with some presents (lamingtons!) and had a good catch up. Amazingly, the WHOLE family was at home together, that's usually impossible because both kids don't live at home anymore and Fred's always working. So that was really nice.


I know it seems like I go on and on about the food, I LIKE FOOD OKAY! But it's just so incredible here, food's something I'm really going to miss (among other things, of course). Speaking of missing things... I leave in less than 3 weeks now, things seem to be speeding up this side of Christmas. Am taking everyone opportunity to travel places and see people so I don't have time to think about how soon I'm leaving!