Thanksgiving in Provence

"Do they celebrate Thanksgiving in France? Do they even have turkeys in France?" These are a few of the questions some of our American friends asked recently. No, Thanksgiving is not celebrated by the French but it IS celebrated by the Amercians living here. Most French, and some other internationals, have either never heard of it or don't know what it is. Some think it is just a day when Americans give thanks, partly true of course, but rarely have they heard of the Pilgrims or know anything about the genesis of the holiday. That being said, they ARE curious about it. For we expats, Thanksgiving is a wonderful opportunity to tell a bit about one of our favorite holidays and heritiage as well. We had that chance with several people during the week before Thanksgiving and we especially enjoyed being able to say we were from "Pilgirm" land!
And, yes, they do have turkeys but...getting a whole turkey in France is not that easy. Although they sell turkey parts everyday at the 'hypermarche', if you want the whole bird, you must order it at least 3 weeks in advance. Also, they are only available fresh. French freezers are about the size of a bread box and can barely hold a small chicken let alone a 20 lb turkey! A turkey of that size would almost fill an entire French fridge! Also, they are expensive; our hosts bought a 22lb turkey and it cost over 60euro! I will say thought that it was one of the most beautiful and delicious turkeys we’ve ever had!
We, that is Nick, Sarah and I, and our house guests, Fred, Diane and Allison Conley, were fortunate to have been invited to a Thanksgiving dinner by our friends, the Pancoasts. As it is not a holiday in France, no one has that day off to prepare the feast so many celebrate on Saturday.

Our hosts, Steve and Dorothy Pancoast, carving the turkey

We were invited to the Pancoasts at 4pm for champagne and mimosas. After the 16 guests had arrived we had a chance to meet and greet and then we put out our various dishes. Our entourage brought mashed potatoes, green beans and rolls. Once the turkey was carved, we stood together while Dorothy read piece on the origin of Thanksgiving, Steve said a blessing and we had the feast. What a feast it was! Not exactly what we have chez Bates every year, but there were many traditional dishes, in addition to our contributions, such as candied sweet potatoes, homemade cranberry sauce, chestnut and sage stuffing, gravy along with the non-traditional fruit salad, pastry cups filled with chicken, mushrooms and gravy, carrot salad and a tomato, zucchini and pepper tart!

After dinner we enjoyed several delicious deserts. There were apple and pumpkin pies along with other yummy non-traditional deserts. Then, we played a fun game called “Catch Phrase”. This is a fast paced, charade-like game where you are allowed to use words, instead of hand/body motions, to describe your word. It was lots of fun and as we were 8 adults and 8 kids it got the whole group interacting. Might just have to find this one for Christmas time!

Lisa Pancoast, Sarah, Allison Conley and "another" Sarah

After coffee, more fine, French wines and some dishwashing, the party ended about 8 pm and the Bates’ and Conley’s rolled down the hill to our house for a good night’s sleep.