As January comes to an end, I can’t help but imagine what life back home must have looked like over the past month.  Gyms were bustling with brand new sneakers and line ups to get onto the cardio machines.  Health food stores had new shoppers and memberships to weight loss programs at an all time high.  Everyone was likely trying their best to get back on track, eat well, exercise more and be the best form of themselves.  New year, new you.

Let me tell you what people have been doing in France.

Eating cake.

I’m not joking.  For the entire month of January the people of France have been eating cake, or more correctly, Galette des Rois.

Every new year Boulangeries flood the shelves with these cakes that come with a paper crown, and French families consume them faithfully.
A French friend explained that the idea is to celebrate the coming of the three Kings, following the birth of Jesus.  Traditionally it’s celebrated on the days surrounding Epiphany, January 6th, but like many holidays it seems to have extended itself into a month long festivity.

I haven’t gotten to the best part yet!  Do you remember in the 80’s when people would make money cakes, where you’d have to watch you didn’t break a tooth when you bit into a forkful of dessert.  Well, the Galette des Rois has a similar concept.  Inside each cake a tiny porcelain figurine, or feve, is hidden.  Watch your teeth, and your wind pipe, because someone is getting a surprise in their slice.  Usually the youngest person in the room is chosen to randomly pass out the pieces of cake because they are deemed to be most innocent.  Whoever gets the feve is crowned the King, or Roi in French, getting to wear the paper crown that comes with the cake.  It also means that they buy the next galette, and so continues the cycle of cake eating for the month of January.

I explained the concept of the money cakes to my friend and said that they stopped being made because people were choking and breaking their teeth.  She shrugged, as the French often do, and told me that it happens with the Galettes des Rois too.

“But they just keep doing it anyways?” I asked her, already knowing the answer.

“Mais oui, c’est une tradition.”  And that was the exact answer you’d get from any French person.  This is just the way it is, because it’s always been like that.  Part of me shakes my head, and the other part is down right impressed with the way the French stick to tradition.  No exceptions.My husband was able to shed some light onto how this cake plays out in offices.  In short, they eat Galette des Rois almost every day in January.  Every day!?!  Yes.  Here’s why.

The person crowned king not only gets to keep the feve, but they are also appointed to buy the next Galette, and you wouldn’t dare break tradition.  Instead, you save a little room in your belly, because nearly everyday at coffee time, there is a galette waiting to be eaten.

How are the French not a morbidly obese nation between the cheese, pastries, and the daily cake eating in January?  It’s beyond me.   But you have to hand it to them; it beats standing in the grocery store aisle obsessively reading the caloric information on the back of what you’re about to put in your cart.  Which by the way, is something I’ve never in 5 years witnessed a French person do.

So if you’re feeling frustrated by counting calories and sweating it out on the treadmill; you can shake your fist in the direction of a skinny French society, eating cake all day.  Just another perfect example that life’s not fair.

I’ve gotta run, it’s my turn to buy the galette.