{"id":740,"date":"2020-01-25T10:10:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T10:10:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maisonlamothe.com\/?p=740"},"modified":"2020-01-25T10:10:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-25T10:10:58","slug":"looking-forward-to-spring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maisonlamothe.com\/en\/looking-forward-to-spring","title":{"rendered":"Looking forward to Spring"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"wpb-content-wrapper\"><p>[vc_row el_class=&#8221;white fullwidthtext&#8221;][vc_column][vc_column_text]<\/p>\n<h1>Looking forward to Spring<\/h1>\n<p>It\u2019s only two weeks into January, but already the first tang of Spring is in the air on some mornings as Bertie and I walk across the fields up to the village.\u00a0 There\u2019s lots of buds on the trees too.\u00a0 But as we walk up the hill under the ruins of the ancient church of Saint Saturnin you can still hear the dulcet tones of Michel Berger singing Le Paradis Blanc.\u00a0 Although the crowds arriving in coaches have gone, people are still turning up to visit Flamarens\u2019 contribution to the Rondes des Creches.<\/p>\n<p>The Rondes des Creches which starts at the beginning of December is a spectacle that brings over 20,000 visitors to our little village and seven other villages in the locality that every year create tableaux which include a Nativity around an agreed theme.\u00a0 Now in its 25th year, this year\u2019s theme was Habitats from around the World which included Norwegian fishermen\u2019s houses, Indonesian bamboo huts, Mongolian yurts, Eskimo igloos and a Berber village in the Sahara. It\u2019s a fun activity for the whole family, a cross between a treasure hunt and the \u2018It\u2019s a Small World\u2019 ride at Disney and particularly magical after dark, with villagers providing stalls selling local produce and serving hot crepes and mulled wine.<\/p>\n<p>Christmas starts slowly in France, much more understated than in the UK where everyone seems to have their trees up before the end of November.\u00a0 Consequently, whereas in the UK all decorations are taken down by 12th night, or in the case of many Boxing Day, here everything is much more laid back and most shops are still decorated with the lights and tinsel and full of Christmas treats.\u00a0\u00a0 When buying notepaper today in my local Presse, I noticed that although they were selling beautiful Greetings Cards at reduced prices, Christmas Cards were still available and full price.<\/p>\n<p>In January the French celebrate the arrival of the Three Kings with Galettes des Roi, a flaky pastry confection filled with gooey almond frangipane.\u00a0 The whole family and friends gather round for a Sunday tea and the large cake is cut into slices. A neighbour who invited me round to partake in the tradition told me that a child sits under the table and shouts out the name of the person who will receive the first slice of the special cake, and then the second and the third and so on until everyone has their cake.\u00a0 Hidden somewhere in one of the slices is a small china ornament or a bean, a bit like a sixpence in a Plum Pudding and whoever has the charm is crowned King or Queen for the day.<\/p>\n<p>Eating Galettes des Roi carries on right the way through January and makes starting a New Year diet very difficult, especially as they are also sold by the slice at Boulangeries, so have to be studiously ignored when buying your bread.\u00a0 I gave way today (again) and bought another slice \u2013 it is after all, almost the weekend and maybe the beginning of February with nights beginning to lighten is a better time to start to diet.<\/p>\n<p>It will also be time to start getting things moving up a gear and get things ready for Spring and Summer.\u00a0 I can\u2019t believe that today I was discussing with Thierry when we shall re-open the pool \u2013 it has to be March \u2013 a hardy soul like me sees it as a matter of honour to have at least one swim in March and another one in November whether or not Summer arrives early or stays late.\u00a0 But before then, there\u2019s plenty to sort in the garden to make everything perfect for our 2020 guests.<\/p>\n<p><em>Michelle Martinez &#8211; January 2020<\/em>[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[vc_row el_class=&#8221;white fullwidthtext&#8221;][vc_column][vc_column_text] Looking forward to Spring It\u2019s only two weeks into January, but already the first tang of Spring is in the air on some mornings as Bertie and I walk across the fields up to the village.\u00a0 There\u2019s lots of buds on the trees too.\u00a0 But as we walk up the hill under [&hellip;]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Looking forward to Spring | Maison Lamothe, Gers<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/maisonlamothe.com\/en\/looking-forward-to-spring\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Looking forward to Spring | Maison Lamothe, Gers\" \/>\n<meta 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