At this time of year, many of our American friends say “They don’t celebrate Thanksgiving there, do they?” Well, the French don’t celebrate but the Americans definitely do. Not only that, but the French love to celebrate Thanksgiving with us. They find this particular American holiday really interesting; it's history and, o course, the special foods. This year, we had the opportunity to share the tradition not once but three times!
Our first and largest celebration, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, was organized and sponsored by our church, The International Christian Community of Provence. In an attempt to provide many with a place to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast, our congregation invited friends of many different nationalities to come and partake of the meal at a Salles des Fetes in the nearby village of St Marc Jaumegarde, just 7 km east of Aix. Each family was asked to bring their favorite side dish or dessert and a baguette; the church and its staff decorated and set up the facility and provided all the turkeys and wine. Our good friends, John and Claude Elk were here to visit and celebrate Thanksgiving with us for a few days. Together we made mashed potatoes, with Claude's secret ingredient, ground nutmeg, and green beans for 15 to contribute to the meal. Everyone’s combined efforts, as you can see, produced a long, lavish table!! What a ‘harvest’! Can you believe 248 people were served that day!?!
Our first and largest celebration, on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, was organized and sponsored by our church, The International Christian Community of Provence. In an attempt to provide many with a place to enjoy a Thanksgiving feast, our congregation invited friends of many different nationalities to come and partake of the meal at a Salles des Fetes in the nearby village of St Marc Jaumegarde, just 7 km east of Aix. Each family was asked to bring their favorite side dish or dessert and a baguette; the church and its staff decorated and set up the facility and provided all the turkeys and wine. Our good friends, John and Claude Elk were here to visit and celebrate Thanksgiving with us for a few days. Together we made mashed potatoes, with Claude's secret ingredient, ground nutmeg, and green beans for 15 to contribute to the meal. Everyone’s combined efforts, as you can see, produced a long, lavish table!! What a ‘harvest’! Can you believe 248 people were served that day!?!
Lindsey's housemother, Marie Francoise, Lindsey's housemate in Aix and at the College of Charleston, Caroline and Claude...
Our bookend friends in this photo, Martin, British and John...
Now add our Scottish friend, Jill Eadie, to the table....
And our French friends, Bettina, Capucine and Waldemar Lucas de Reau for a truly international bunch!
Our second Thanksgiving dinner was the brainchild of Lindsey and her American housemates, Caroline and Karolyn. These three college students, who’ve been living together during their semester in Aix, put together a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner for their housemother, Marie Francoise, 5 of her friends and Nick, Sarah and I. They worked really hard to produce all the dishes they each felt needed to be represented on their Thanksgiving table. Being from the states of Colorado, Alabama and Massachusetts there were different ‘must haves’ from each of them. Fixing a traditional Thanksgiving in the US takes a lot of time and effort, but imagine life without ingredients like Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix or Libby’s pumpkin pie filling? None of that stuff is available here so you have to make everything from scratch. The girls made cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, a tomato casserole and a pumpkin pie! Everything was delicious and we all gave these girls very high marks for their first attempt at preparing a Thanksgiving dinner.
Linds was happy to have Dad on hand to make the gravy and carve the turkey...
Sarah helped put the finishing touches on the gravy....
Now add our Scottish friend, Jill Eadie, to the table....
And our French friends, Bettina, Capucine and Waldemar Lucas de Reau for a truly international bunch!
Our second Thanksgiving dinner was the brainchild of Lindsey and her American housemates, Caroline and Karolyn. These three college students, who’ve been living together during their semester in Aix, put together a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner for their housemother, Marie Francoise, 5 of her friends and Nick, Sarah and I. They worked really hard to produce all the dishes they each felt needed to be represented on their Thanksgiving table. Being from the states of Colorado, Alabama and Massachusetts there were different ‘must haves’ from each of them. Fixing a traditional Thanksgiving in the US takes a lot of time and effort, but imagine life without ingredients like Pepperidge Farm stuffing mix or Libby’s pumpkin pie filling? None of that stuff is available here so you have to make everything from scratch. The girls made cranberry sauce, stuffing, sweet potato casserole, a tomato casserole and a pumpkin pie! Everything was delicious and we all gave these girls very high marks for their first attempt at preparing a Thanksgiving dinner.
Linds was happy to have Dad on hand to make the gravy and carve the turkey...
Sarah helped put the finishing touches on the gravy....
A few smiles for the camera....
and we all sat down to another feast!!
and we all sat down to another feast!!
Our third, and final, Thanksgiving dinner took place on Thanksgiving Day at 2:30pm in the afternoon with the same three families we celebrated with the year before. Our pastor, Darrin and his wife, Julie and their kids hosted the meal this year. All tolled we were a party of 16; four families of four! Nick, Sarah and I were delighted to have Lindsey with us. We were joined by our American friends, Teal and Megan Rapp, their girls and Fabien and Cecile and their children, now celebrating their 2nd ever Thanksgiving.
Julie set a lovely table....
Darrin and Fabien carved the beautiful bird....
Julie, Cecile, Nick and Teal anticipating the feast....
Kids table also awaitng the feast....
In addition to homemade pumpkin pie a la Lindsey, Cecile brought amazing French desserts. One special one has hidden treasures in each one and Olivia and I each got one so we were crowned queens for the day!
So, as you can see, YES, we do celebrate Thanksgiving in France....and with so much to be thankful for why not do it more than once!?!?
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