La chandeleur, or Candlemas, is a holiday that most Americans don’t celebrate. It’s the feast of the presentation of Christ at the temple, marking the end of the Epiphany season, but origins can be traced back to the Roman and Celtic tradition of welcoming in the new season with candles. In France, la chandeleur, or the festival of candles, is celebrated by eating crêpes. But it’s not as easy as that. For good luck, you must hold a coin in your left hand while successfully flipping the crêpe in the pan. Or, in some places, tradition states that you throw a crêpe on your kitchen cabinet, and if it sticks to the side, you must leave it there to have a good harvest.
After my weekend in St-Malo, I decided to try some of the pre-made galettes (buckwheat crêpes) that you can buy in the store. Compared to the fresh ones you can buy in the bakeries in Brittany, my almost-home-made galettes were a big disappointment. Still, I saved one to eat on Saturday so I wouldn’t miss out on the crêpe-eating tradition. I didn’t consider that my dinner hosts that night were of Breton origin, or I would have just chunked my last one and waited for the real deal. Vivian, a math teacher at school and one of the few people I know who actually live in Poix, invited me to join her family for dinner. We had a delicious pintade (guinea hen) with baked pears, seasoned with cinnamon and ginger (the French really like things that are sucré-salé), potatoes, a nice salad, and of course, cheese. For dessert, we had crêpes, of course. My first one had apples & cinnamon and a French-sized scoop of vanilla ice cream, and while everyone else dug into my home made pecan pie, I enjoyed my new favorite crêpe – lemon and sugar. I guess no one will have good luck (or a good harvest) this year, because Viviane made the crêpes on a large electric crêpe-maker in the traditional Breton way, making it impossible to flip, and as far as I know, they didn’t toss one to see if it would stick on the cabinet.
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