Join Us in France Travel Podcast

Today Annie brings you a conversation with Susan Walter about bread in France, and why bread is such an important piece of French culture and life. We talk a little bit about this history of bread and we agree on many things, including: What’s up with the obsession with finding the “BEST” baguette in France? Grab some toast, let’s talk bread! Full show notes for this episode are here: https://joinusinfrance.com/324 And, something I didn't mention in the episode and I should have. If you don’t live close to a great bakery, you can buy several loaves, slice them the way you like them, put them in a bag and freeze them. When you need some, take it out of the freezer and pop the slices into the toaster. Baguette freezes really well and will taste fabulous that way. Book Recommendation: Max Gallo, the Sun of Austerlitz, a good book about Napoleon. Podcast Recommendation: Un bonbon sur la langue with Muriel Gilbert My guest on today's episode has a blog called Days on the Claise, a good source of information about a part of France that's rarely discussed. Annie's Boutique | Annie's Patreon | Subscribe to the newsletter Discussed in this episode Bread in France: it's a staple A brief history of bread in France French baguettes aren't as old as you think! Large Boulangeries in France Bread vending machines in France The types of wheat grown in France Bread preferences in France Breads you won't find in France Where is the best bread in Paris? Categories: France How To, French Culture, French Customs & Lifestyle, French Food & Wine

Annie's Patreon | Elyse's Patreon | Boutique La Rochelle in the Charente is a gorgeous French city on the French Atlantic coast. It is surrounded by beautiful coast, white limestone and stunning vistas. La Rochelle is a favorite vacation spot for French people, but doesn't seem to be on a radar of a lot of American visitors. That's a mistake because it is usually sunny and has a mild oceanic climate. Full show notes for this episode are here: https://joinusinfrance.com/323 You could spend a whole week in La Rochelle and keep busy by exploring nearby islands such as Île de Ré and Île d'Oléron.  Those are the easy ones because they both have a causeway to drive to them. You can even take a bus from La Rochelle to visit those places for the day. Some islands are more remote and can only be accessed by boat. You could also explore the Marais Poitevin and beautiful cities like Saintes, Rochefort and Cognac in this region. In this episode we talk about the siege of La Rochelle, how it brought the city to its knees. We also discuss how La Rochelle gained back its prominence by being an active participant in the slave trade. This shameful part of history has been acknowledge in the city as you will hear when we discuss the new world museum. We recommend you download the official brochures of La Rochelle published by the tourist office, they provide an excellent walking tour of the city. Discussed in this Episode Ile de Ré Rochefort (the Hermione and Marquis de Lafayette) Ile d’Oléron Cognac Saintes Tour Saint Nicolas Tour de la Lanterne Tour de la Chaine German u-boats Musée du Nouveau Monde Les Francofolies Aquarium of La Rochelle La Grosse Horloge Oysters La Mouclade Pinot de La Rochelle (fortified wine) Chabichou goat cheese La galette Charentaise Fort Boyard FOLLOW US ON: Email | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter

Today Annie Sargent brings you a conversation with Carolyn Gates and Julia Maurice about growing old in France. Even if you have no intention of ever moving to France, as a Francophile you might be interested in what happens as people grow old in France. Having said that, a lot of my listeners would love to move to France someday. It may or may not happen, but they are keenly interested in the question. If you move to France and all goes well, you’ll be growing old in France. What options will you have then? We’ll explore the 3 things that can happen as a person grows old in France. Full show notes for this episode: https://joinusinfrance.com/322 Discussed in this Episode Growing old in your own home Age-proof your Home Watch those steps! Increase door width Choose your terroir carefully Get a Carte Vitale and get to know the French system The Carte Vitale is your ticket into the French health insurance system Medical services are cheap in France compared to America How the French system helps people kive in their own homes Medical taxis Home visits are part of the plan What's an infirmière indépendante? Annie's experience with her ageing father There are lots of home services for the elderly in France! Moving into a residence with services for older adults The cost of senior residences EHPAD or Établissement d'Ébergement pour Personnes Âgées Carolyne's experience with an EHPAD Conversation with Julia about growing old in France French tip of the week "faut pas pousser" Annie's Boutique | Annie's Patreon | Newsletter

This episode features our frequent and very popular guest Elyse Rivin. If you enjoy her episodes, please consider supporting her on Patreon. Le Marais Poitevin is also known as La Venise Verte and it's a lovely piece of France between Niort and La Rochelle not far from the Atlantic ocean. Full show notes for this episode are here: https://joinusinfrance.com/321 Officially some of it is in the Loire region and some of it in the Aquitaine region. The name means “the marsh of the Poitou” but everyone just calls it Marais Poitevin or Green Venice because of the boat rides. It’s a place most French people have heard of and lots of us visit every year, but it's not as popular with foreign visitors. I don’t know why that is because it’s a wonderful place where you can enjoy nature, bike rides, bucolic walks and fun boat rides. It’s gorgeous and restful. Both Elyse and I have been there and if you click play you’ll soon understand why we love it so much! Annie's book recommendation: The French Revolution by Emma Moreau The Join Us in France Podcast Audience Graph by Rephonic. This shows what the people who listen to Join Us in France also listen to. Discussed in this Episode Marais Poitevin Venise Verte Réserve  Naturelle Nationale Michel Brosselin Marans Sansais Saint-Pierre-le-Vieux Maillezais Maillé Damvix Saint-Sigismond Le Mazeau French Tip of the Week: Appeler un chat un chat Annie's Boutique | Annie's Patreon | Subscribe to the Newsletter

Categories: Loire Valley, Moving to France Annie Sargent chats with Sarah Smith about her new life in the Mayenne. The Mayenne is in the North West of France, tucked between Paris and Brittany. It is part of the Loire Valley region and about an hour away from some of the most famous chateaux in the world. There are places like that in France. They are in plain sight and yet hidden secrets because we don't talk about them enough. Show notes for this episode: https://joinusinfrance.com/320 If you like what we do here at Join Us in France, consider supporting us on Patreon and by visiting the Join Us in France Boutique. Discussed in this Episode The Mayenne department Mayenne the city The Mayenne River Laval Chailland Fontaine Daniel Toiles de Mayenne Ambriere les Vallées Lassay les Châteaux Montgiroux Sainte Suzanne Saint Pierre sur Erve Fresnay sur Sarthe Craon The difficutlies of finding a house in France Why it's good to rent several gîtes Why Sarah loves driving in France

In this episode Annie and Elyse talk about the long history of vaccines and how Louis Pasteur made tremendous contributions to the field. We also talk about the life and career of a simple man who changed the world with science and careful observation. Show Notes for this episode are here: https://joinusinfrance.com/319 The Pasteur Institute in Paris is closed right now, both because of Covid-19 and for renovations. Check their website for updates. Book recommendation: Louis Pasteur by Albert Keim. Annie picked this one because it goes over Pasteur's life in some detail. Go to the Join Us in France YouTube channel to see the hedgehog video. #joinusinfrance #louispasteur #frenchhistory FOLLOW US ON: Email | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter   Support the Show Tip Your Guide Extras Patreon Audio Tours Merchandise Category: French History

This episode of the podcast is a conversation with Wendy Sherwood on house-hunting in France. Wendy is looking to retire in France which is a dream for a lot of people. It’s achievable, she explains how they are going about it. Wendy keeps a blog called Are We In France Yet and I recommend you take a look, lots of inspiration for places to visit in France if you need your list to get any longer! 2021 is finally here! Not that rolling over a new digit will necessarily change everything, but it’s a step forward and I’m happy that it’s finally here. So, Bonne Année to all of you, wishing you health, joy with your family and friends, professional success, and the ability to visit France soon. Will travel for pleasure resume in 2021? I am sure some of it will. How much? I can’t say for sure right now. House Hunting in France Wendy and her husband decided to look for a house they could buy for their retirement. They're not ready to retire yet, but they've decided they would like to live in France and are exploring ways to make that happen. Wendy has lived in France in the past, she speaks French and loves France. Her husband was in the wine business and would love to live in France. They have friends whose parents are in Toulouse and they are helping them locate a property. They spent 10 weeks in France doing on the ground reconnaissance but they haven't decided where they want to settle yet. They are considering buying a property they could rent as a gite or possibly use the space to do cooking classes or some such service. If they don't develop a business they will have more leeway as to where they settle. 10 Weeks of House Hunting in France They landed in Bordeaux and leased a car through Renault and Euro Drive. This gave them plenty of time to see several regions and be really mobile. At first they stayed with their friends around Bordeaux and the Dordogne and then moved on to AirBnB. Their friends have a lot of local knowledge and was able to tell them all about the area they were looking into. They were able to take personal house tours arranged by their friends without involving a realtor. They know they want an old house with old stones, some land, access to water. But not anything like renovate a chateau. They'd like a historic property (which they know might come with some issues) and possibly has a barn they can renovate into a B&B or gite. Making the Purchase Contingent on What You Need It's important to make sure whatever property the buyer chooses is zoned right for that sort of development because in France zoning is only reviewed every decade or so. If it's not zoned right it may be get the right zoning in your lifetime. In the purchase contract you can put a condition that says I will only buy if it turns out I can put in a pool or turn an agricultural building into a house. But be aware that the only people who can tell you for sure is city officials. Not realtors and definitely not sellers because they'll say anything to make the sale. Find an Agent who Speaks English Finding an agent who speaks English is good, but knowing French yourself is a lot better. Annie guesses that a buyer who doesn't understand the fine print will be taken for a lot of rides. If you're looking into areas where it's touristy most real-estate agents will look at you like a walking checkbook. They figure the rich Americans have shown up, let's sell them something even if it's not really what they wanted. Work with a British Agent If you're not 100% comfortable with French, look for an agent who is English or speaks great English. They will often be more understanding of your point of view as a buyer. There are a lot of them in the Dordogne, Provence, Normandy. Putting an Offer on a House If you're house hunting in France, eventually you'll make an offer. That's exactly what happened to Wendy and her husband. They fell in love with a property that checked all their boxes and put an offer on it. They made the offer, negotiated it, the sellers accepted it. The sellers were adamant that they should sign the "compromis de vente" right away. That's the document that commits you and if you break that commitment you lose your deposit. Getting the House Inspected In France there are mandatory reports that the seller has to pay for but buyers can also hire an engineer who will give an independent inspection. Hiring an independent inspector is not common in France, but it's a good idea to do it even if it'll cost a few hundred euros. Finding an independent building inspector might be difficult. In France it's still very much about who you know. People get their uncle who is a builder to come look at the house. The "bilan énergétique" is mandatory. But you're on your own when it comes to floods and other risks. In the Dordogne you can find building inspectors (because there are so many English-speaking buyers) and that's what they did. Their inspector wrote a 30 page report and met with them and explained that the biggest problem was with humidity in the walls. This is a common problem with houses built in that era. There are ways to mitigate these issues but it can be very expensive. Who Will Manage the Renovations? One big question folks who want to retire in France must answer is who will take care of renovations on the house. Can that person speak French? Is that person willing to handle these things? This can become a full-time job at least temporarily. Is this Area Still French? There are areas of France (in the Dordogne and in Provence notably) where all the houses have been purchased by foreign buyers. That means that all the French people have moved somewhere else. Are you really living in France when you're surrounded by non-French people? London vs Dordogne House Prices Keep in mind that British families who own a modest home in London are in a position to sell that modest home for the price of a beautiful place in the Dordogne. Annie met a couple like that who came to house-sit for her. They sold their tiny house near London and bought a big beautiful place with a gite in the Dordogne. They didn't have enough income to live in the Dordogne so in the touristy season they rented out their house and went around house-sitting. This may end with Brexit, but it was common up until now. Will You Start a Hospitality Business in France? This is another big question for folks who want to "retire in France". A lot of them don't really want to retire fully. They want to have a side business that often turns out to be a rental business or other hospitality business. The issue is can they qualify for a work permit? Rules change all the time but Wendy explains what she looked into at around minute 29 of our conversation. Lessons Learned from the Pandemic Because of the pandemic Wendy realized that it's possible for a hospitality business to stop bringing income. Travel restrictions have been a reality for most of 2020 and continue to be a reality in early 2021. The question is can you move to France if that means not being able to go home to see your aging parents? Look at Less Expensive Regions in France If you're not going to be able to rely on a hospitality business to justify buying an expensive property in a touristy area, maybe you can look at cheaper French regions. Brittany comes to mind. The weather is not as pleasant, but it's beautiful. Wendy being from a hot dry climate in California and she's not sure she wants to be in a place that has heat waves again. But most of France has heat waves occasionally. WiFi is another consideration. Some places have great connections and others are bad even if technically they have WiFi. Most French people don't care if the WiFi is lousy. We have 4G (soon to be 5G) with our local data plan so we can do a hot-spot for better internet access. Changes Due to Covid and Brexit The economic depression due to Covid-19 has motivated the French government to create incentives for French people to renovate their homes. These incentives are available for primary as well as secondary residences. It is likely that home owners in France will take advantage of these grants to improve heating systems. Will they install AC? Some never will, even if it's cheap because there is a bias in France against cooling. Because of Brexit it will become harder for English people to buy up properties in France. That will make home sellers more willing to negotiate. Some properties will stay on the market for years because it was inherited by siblings who can't agree on a sales price. Usually these are people who are not hurting for cash anyway. With the pandemic lots of people in Paris are realizing that they might prefer to live somewhere more rural, have a garden and not be so close to other people. Apartment prices being what they are in Paris, they can sell at a high price and buy a bigger place somewhere else in France. It's very much a seller's market in France right now and for the foreseeable future. The Sellers Who Are Most Likely to Negotiate The people who are most likely to sell as quickly as possible in France are people who are getting a divorce. They need to split the equity between them and usually neither one has the cash necessary to buy the other one out. They are the ones who will negotiate. Folks who inherited a house are often willing to sit on the property for years and won't lower their price. The Smart Way to Find a House in France Rent for a few months at minimum and talk to everybody. The little old ladies and the dog walkers are a great source of information! They know things nobody else will tell you. Live there for a year in a rental, get to know the folks who are on the city council. They'll know if a new development is coming or if something that was planned has is not going to happen. This also helps you becoming part of a community. French people are very willing to help once you have a relationship with them. Find Your Own Notaire Have a meeting with a Notaire. They are a real estate lawyer as well as a deed company and they collect taxes. In France you pay a big chuck of tax when you buy. Later on you'll pay Taxe Foncière and Taxe d'Habitation, but those are not big amount. If you're house hunting in France, you should lookup the price houses have actually sold in France. Just be aware that the data is often a year behind. It's also smart to have your own notaire and not use the same one as the seller. French people don't refinance their mortgage because they would pay high taxes again. So, this is not done here. No Zillow or MLS in France One of the difficulties of buying a house in France is the difficulty of determining the right price. Lots of houses are listed by different realtors at different prices. You cannot hire a buyer's agent. Once you've signed a visitation paper you're stuck with that realtor. Official site that lists the price of properties sold in France since Feb 2014. How about you? Have you gone house hunting in France? Share your thoughts on the show's Facebook group. More episodes about moving to France FOLLOW US ON: Email | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter     Support the Show Tip Your Guide Extras Patreon Audio Tours Merchandise If you enjoyed this episode, you should also listen to related episode(s): Will the Pandemic Change the Way You Travel? Episode 282 Will Covid-19 Change France? Episode 285 Wendy and her husband

In this short episode of the podcast, Annie reviews best practices when preparing a trip to France. There are simple things that many visitors never think to look into but would nevertheless insure that you have a wonderful experience on your vacation. What sort of traveler are you? Because you're always inside your head, it can be hard to see what sort of traveler you are. It is vital to understand that or you may not pick your destination accordingly. If you like to sleep in the same bed for a while go to a city that has plenty to offer (the biggest 5 or 6 cities in France) or an area where you can take a lot of daytrips. On joinusinfrance.com we share lots of day trips you can take from Toulouse and Paris, but any city has great day trips you can take by googling them. In French you’d search for que faire autour de... If you’re not in a big city, you will spend time in the car. It shouldn’t be a problem for most Americans, but even in a city like Toulouse, once you’ve been here for 2 or 3 nights, you’ll run out of things to do unless you hop in a car and explore. This is also true of Bordeaux, Lyon, etc. However, if you go to the French Riviera you’ll be able to do all that by train. It’s worth looking at regional trains. There are also fairly rural places in France where it’s possible to do day trips and go sleep in the same bed every night: Normandy and the Dordogne come to mind. French roads are pretty easy to navigate, especially with a GPS. Now that electric assist bikes are so common, I wonder if more people will use those explore 20-50 kilometers around without breaking too much of a sweat. French people have sure taken to electric bikes! Well, French people like all sorts of bikes, really. Listen to podcast episodes about different parts of France to pick the one that fits your needs best. Check out the Calendar Some of us don’t have a choice when we travel while others can pick whichever date is best. Once you’ve picked an area, lookup events. How do you do that? Use the right search terms in French. You want to use the words agenda and sorties and événement and cette semaine à and then the name of the place you picked. Results will be in French, but if your French isn’t great you can ask your browser to do an automatic translation. Those are not perfect but it’ll help you get the gist. Don’t skip this step, events make a vacation great! List of events in France Look for the Tourist Office Before Your Trip Many tourist offices in France will put handy-dandy city maps on their web site for you to download on PDF. These make it so easy to plan your visit and even decide in what part of the city to stay! But to find them you need to use the right words: plan touristique PDF and the name of the city or brochure touristique PDF. Some tourist offices have a version of the site in English, but it’s extremely rare that they have every page or every resource translated into English. If the English site doesn’t have what you need, check out the French version. A map is a map is a map, it doesn’t need to be in English to be helpful. Look for a Planning Template There are a lot of free trip planning templates on-line and you should use them! I use Word and Excel and if I search for word travel template I get to a lot of templates that are beautiful but also a great reminder if things to look into. Same for Google Docs. Remember to look for a template and pick the one that suits your needs best. Some of them will remind you to list your flight and reservation numbers as well as list the medications you take just in case you need medical help on your trip. Templates are also a great way to see the gaps in your planning. More episodes about how things work in France FOLLOW US ON: Email | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter   Support the Show Tip Your Guide Extras Patreon Audio Tours Merchandise Categories: France How To, French Customs & Lifestyle

Ready to learn about Christmas with a French flavor? In this episode Annie talks about the real story of Christmas as far as French people are concerned. And because it’s Christmas and we all want a nice giggle, I will also tell you about the French film classic about Christmas called “Le Père Noël est une Ordure”, definitely not your average Christmas movie and I’ll tell you why it’s been such a big hit in France for decades! Christmas with a French Flavor: Le Père Noël est une ordure Le Père Noël est une ordure. This movie came out in 1982 and it wasn’t a big hit at first because it is quirky, and I should probably say extremely quirky! But, seeing that it’s one of the few movies about Christmas made in France and it was cheap to buy, TV stations started showing it every year and it grew on us. American Remake: Mixed Nuts There is a remake of it called Mixed Nuts with Steve Martin and that one came out in 1994. It’s a similar story line, but not as gritty as the French version. The preview is really funny, it’s on Amazon Prime. It wasn’t popular for a Norah Ephrom film, but we’ll watch it on Christmas day because it seems fitting for 2020! La Troupe du Splendid Pere Noel est une ordure is from the same group of folks who brough us Les Bronzés, they were a theater troupe who started making movies and all of them became cult movies. Les Bronzés came out in 1978, Les Bronzés font du Ski in 1979 and Le Père Noël est une Ordure in 1982. It started out as a play with the same cast and that’s why almost everything in the movie happens in the same room. The actors didn’t think anybody would like this movie because it’s so over the top, but it did! And all the actors in the troupe got extremely popular individually leading to the group splitting up and reuniting only on occasion. Santa Is a Piece of Garbage The title Le Père Noël est une Ordure means Santa is a piece of garbage. Can you imagine the big ads in the metro with that title? There are a lot of kids reading the ads in the Paris metro! The RATP refused to advertise it with that title so they toned it down and they advertised it as Les Bronzés Fêtent Noël which is Les Bronzés (the ones who are tanned literally) celebrate Christmas. That was based on their first two movies that had been big hits. Volunteers at a Suicide Help Line The premise of the show is a group of people who volunteers at a suicide help line on Christmas Eve. Suicide help lines were brand new in France and there were a lot of ads with the phone number on TV and radio and all that. Christmas movies are typically feel-good but this is a cast of people who are all miserable. Not just the folks who call the suicide help line, they are all miserable and misfits of one sort or another. Basic Plot of Le Père Noèl Est Une Ordure The movie opens with Pierre is a stuffy, self-righteous volunteer at a telephone helpline for depressed people. He has a well-meaning but naïve co-worker called Thérèse. They are stuck with the Christmas Eve shift in the Paris office and they are not happy about it. The building's lift is malfunctioning, and they receive visits from unwanted callers: Katia, a depressed transvestite who tries to hit on Pierre, M. Preskovic who lives in the same building and always turns up unexpectedly to offer them various unappetizing pastries and Josette, a heavily pregnant woman on the run from her violent fiancé Félix. Félix (the violent husband) is working as a Santa Claus during the season and turns up on her trail in costume and brandishing a gun. Félix and Josette, a caricature trailer trash couple, end up struggling over the gun and accidentally shooting dead the lift repairman, whom they then butcher and feed to zoo animals. Cheerful Christmas movie, right?! Classic Lines The way classic movies work in France (and anywhere really) is that people memorize some of the lines and use them at opportune moments. One such line is “c’est fin, c’est très fin, ça se mange sans faim » It’s a play on words in French between homonyms “fin” which means fine or delicate and “faim” which means hunger. The guy who keeps bringing them horrible foods from Hungary brings them Christmas chocolates from his country. They look awful, he tells them they are hand made the traditional way and rolled under the armpit and she says c’est fin, c’est très fin, ça se mange sans faim”. So, we’ve been saying that ever since about anything we don’t want to eat. Tasteless Jokes Another joke which they kept in the American version is the guy who calls and says I’m at the end of my rope what shall I do and the woman Josette can’t hear him right and wants him to press a button. So, he pulls the trigger. Dark humor indeed. There’s the woman who volunteers to make gloves for unfortunate people in India who suffer from leprosy. The Red Cross asked her to make gloves with only 3 fingers and she complains that it would be easier to make mittens. So, Pierre jokes why don’t we just send them socks instead? Ah ah ah very Parisian laugh that makes the rest of France laugh at them and their haughty ways. But once they’re done laughing, the viewer may understand that they are making fun of well-meaning entitled Parisians who say horrible things because they have no idea about poverty and they are a little bit crazy themselves. Anyway, I’m not going to tell you the whole story, but this is a definite satire of both well-meaning volunteers and of poor people. Generally speaking in movies, the poor are depicted as good unfortunate folks. In this movie they are jerks! They thieve, lie, and kill. The poor are not nice because they have to fight for their survival. It’s a crazy story and French people love it! Maybe you would too, just keep in mind that it’s a crazy story that violates a lot of norms and makes us laugh about it. A Brief History of Christmas Nicolas de Myra in Turkey was born of wealthy parents called Epiphane and Jeanne in the year 270. They say he stood up in his bath on the day of his birth, which gave them great hope for his future. As an adult he turned away from all entertainment and loved to spend time in churches. He memorized the Holy Books. These were the early days of Christianity where it was spreading from Jerusalem towards Europe and to the East. Many new churches sprung up all over and were the source of great interest everywhere. We know all this from a book written by an Italian author Jacobus de Varagine who wrote a book called The Golden Legend in the 1200s. His book chronicled the life of saints and martyrs of the Catholic church. Among them was Saint Nicolas whose life can be summarized in one word: generosity. Having inherited much wealth from his parents Nicolas decided to do good in the world. One day he heard about a poor desperate man in his city had decided to sell his 3 daughters into prostitution so they could all survive. In secret, Nicolas threw gold pieces into the family’s window. But the destitute man saw him and ran to him to express his gratitude. Nicolas made him promise to keep the whole affair a secret. When the Bishop of Myra died, Nicolas was chosen to become the new Bishop. Despite getting the great honor of becoming a Bishop, Nicolas remained humble and faithful. He also performed several miracles. The most famous is when he saved 3 princes who were visiting from Rome and were the victim of a terrible injustice. The Golden Legend We learn from the Golden Legend (the book that chronicles the lives of Saints) that the 3 princes asked for Nicolas’ protection and put themselves under his benevolent care. Nicolas prayed so ardently for the welfare of these princes that he appeared in a dream to the Emperor Constantine the Great asking why these princes were held unjustly. In the dream Constantine heard him command that he should get up right away and set them free or else he would ask God to bring war to Constantine, a war that would destroy him. Who are you exclaimed Constantine to appear in my palace and dare speak like that? Nicolas replied that he was the humble Bishop of Myra, that’s who. Setting the Birth of Jesus to December 25th Let’s stop for one second on Constantine the Great. He was the first Roman Emperor to convert to Christianity. He did it on his death bed, but he was the first. And during his life he made laws to allow his people to worship as they saw fit. He is the one who called the Council of Nicaea in 372 that set many rules for Christianity, Nicolas attended this council. The purpose of this council was to smooth over the differences between all Christian churches and unite them under one set of beliefs. The credo they wrote was adopted by most Christian churches even if interpretations differed over time. This council is where the date for the birth of Christ was set and they all agreed on December 25th. At the time it was rare for anyone to celebrate a birthdate. Emperors and Kings did it, but regular people had no idea what day they were born and did not celebrate birthdays. Up until then Easter was the major Christian celebration, it is the holiday that marks the resurrection of Christ. Christmas Taking Over Saturnalia Why did they pick December 25th? Because of the established holiday called Saturnalia this was a holiday during which it was forbidden to execute a prisoner or start a war. For Romans, December 25th was the date of the winter solstice. Saturn was a God of agriculture. This was a time period (which lasted a week or so) during which masters could behave like slaves and slaves like master. It was a time of freedom and celebration when one could speak their minds and be themselves. December 25th was the day of the invincible sun, the day when days start to get longer. OK, we know now that it’s Dec 21st, but let’s cut them some slack. The Religion of Mithra Loses to Christianity The religion Mithra-ism was also a major player in the early 300s. This religion came from Persia and was spreading rapidly through Roman soldiers who went all over Europe. Mithra was the divinity of light and truth and the divinity called Mithra was born on December 25th. The birth of Mithra was celebrated by slaughtering a bull and spilling his blood on the ground to bring better harvests. Mithra-ism was in direct competition with Christianity, but choosing December 25th as both the birth of Christ and the birth of Mithra would bring Jesus forward as the sun of justice and light of the world as decreed by the Council of Nicaea. So if you’ve heard that Christmas was set in order to celebrate rebirth and fight against pagan rituals, you were correct. But it is more than that. Christmas is an anchor in time that repeats every year, as immutable as the seasons themselves. Miraculous Oil of Saint Nicolas Nicolas is said to have died form a fever on December 6, 343. And the amazing news spreads to all his followers: an oil is coming out from the body of the Bishop. It is a magical oil that health all disease. December 6th is now became a holy day marked in the Catholic calendar as Saint Nicolas Day. This is a day when he is worshiped and praised. In 1087 Italian sailors went to Myra and took his reliquary back with them. This increased the importance of worshiping Saint Nicolas. The God Odin The stories of Saint Nicolas also coincided with other miraculous events, such as the story of the God Odin in the north of Europe who moved through the air on a horse and wore a long white beard. The Christians in these regions integrated these stories into the story of Christmas where it gained a lot of symbols that are familiar to us today. They also integrated the symbol of the yule log which was a special log you burned for special occasions at the beginning and is now a tree you bring into your home or a cake decorated as a log if you’re French. The Nativity Scene Christmas is a sponge for symbolism coming from stories from all over Europe and the Middle East. One more example: the Nativity Scene also started in the Middle Ages with Saint Francis of Assisi who was the founder of the Franciscan order. He introduced the living Nativity scene in churches and that had to get more discrete and was represented as small figurines around the time of the French Revolution because at that time you could get in serious trouble for being overtly religious. Le Père Fouettard Saint Nicolas developed a reputation for being the protector of children. He comes down the chimney on Dec 6th to bring gifts to faithful children who left their shoes out to dry near the hearth. And soon in Germany, Saint Nicolas got a side man called Knecht Ruprecht which in France got twisted into Le Père Fouettard who looked like Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. This character appeared in 1522 after the siege of Metz. Père Fouettard, aka the German Emperor, punished unruly and ingrate children. He was supposed to frighten children when Saint Nicolas was all kindness. They traveled together, one taking care of the good kids while the other whipped the bad ones (fouetter means the whip in French). Dec 25th Wins Over Dec 6th But in the 1700s the stories of Saint Nicolas came to a sudden stop in much of Europe because protestants didn’t like the worship of saints. But the good Protestant people in Holland decided that they would just hang on to just one Saint. They called him Santa Claus in their language and his feast was celebrated on December 6th. Methinks they had Saint Nicolas in mind, don’t you? Santa Claus made its way from Holland to New Amsterdam, to be renamed New York later. Many Dutch settled in New Amsterdam in 1625, they brought in their suitcase the tradition of celebrating Santa Claus on December 6th. From there it spread to English settlers of America and many preferred to associate this happy winter celebration with the birth of Jesus than to a Catholic Saint. That’s how Christmas moved to December 25th. A Visit from Saint Nicolas Now Santa started delivering his gifts in the night of December 24th instead of December 5th because that didn’t feel so Catholic. In 1823 an American pastor called Clement Clarke Moore, he was an Episcopalian who, as far as I can see seem like the American version of Catholicism or Anglicans. He published a poem anonymously called A Visit from Saint Nicolas also known as Twas the Night Before Christmas. The story came to him one day as he went shopping using his sleigh which was his usual mode of transportation. He borrowed story elements from a local Dutch handyman as well as the historical Saint Nicolas that he had learned about in Divinity school. He made up the reindeer, but he probably knew about Odin and his magical horse and long white beard. By the time Moore admitted that he was the author 8 other people had claimed authorship because this was a huge success.  People are still arguing about who was the author and I’m in no position to take a side in this hot burning topic. Drawing Santa 40 years later, a who talented caricaturist called Thomas Nast who also drew Uncle Tom with his tall hat and stripped pants drew Santa who now got rid of his Bishop attire and now wearing a red cape with white trim, a big belly and a wide leather belt. In the same series of drawings he represented two children who follow the path Santa takes between the north pole and the US. Santa as we know him today was born out of the imagination of Thomas Nast and he is definitely a character from the North. Santa and Coca Cola This figure became popular all over the western world through advertising. Waterman pens used him in 1907, then Michelin in 1919 and Colgate in 1920. This jolly character was great for advertising products! And the Coca Cola brand refined Santa as we know him today. In 1931 Haddon Sundblom  drew himself as the jolly Santa we know today. A large jolly man dressed in white holding a Coca Cola bottle. I’ll point you to a blog post where you can see all these images in the show notes because I don’t have rights to them. The whole idea was to inspire people to drink Coke in the middle of the winter. Before then Santa was pictured with snacks or cakes, Sundblom changed all that. French Christmas Traditions What a long way Santa has come since the early 200s! The reason why this happened is because we all love a wonderful holiday, be it religious or commercial. And a story that comes back around every year gets richer every time it is told. Of course in France we have our traditions that are different from what I experienced in America. For one thing, I had never seen a glut of gifts the way I did in American families. In France gifts are mostly for children. Grown ups may have one or two gifts, but kids rake in dozens. In France when there are little kids in the family we don’t put any gifts under the tree, they all get revealed on Christmas Eve or Christmas Morning when someone declares they heard some strange noise in the other room, let’s go see! In my family we sing the old classic Petit Papa Noël to make Santa come. And we don’t use stockings, presents appear next to our shoe. We also dress a beautiful table. No eating out of disposable anything on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. What are the foods of Christmas in France? Oysters, foie gras, smoked salmon, duck, turkey, bûche de Noël (which I buy), lots of chocolates, lots of Champagne. Activities include playing with new toys which these days often include video games, chatting, cooking, drinking, dancing around like fools, you know, same-old, same-old. I wish you all a wonderful Christmas because this holiday has become so big that almost everyone celebrates it all over the world. It’s not about a Catholic Saint so much is it? I’m told they do big celebrations in Asia and in Africa, everywhere really. Christmas by now has become a world-wide feast, and in a year like 2020 we could all use a few days of celebrations! Paris fined for having too many women in charge: news article. More episodes about Christmas in France FOLLOW US ON: Email | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter     Category: Christmas in France

This episode features our frequent and very popular guest Elyse Rivin. If you enjoy her episodes, please consider supporting her on Patreon. When you live in Toulouse, as Elyse and Annie do, taking a trip to Gaillac wine country is quite easy. But should you do it next time you visit France? Listen to this episode and decide for yourself! On this drive, Elyse visited two small towns, one is Rabastens and the other is L'Isle-sur-Tarn and in between they stopped along the Gaillac wine route. A lot of this follows the gorgeous Tarn river and it can easily be done as a day trip from Toulouse. But you need a car or bicycle or wheels of some sort to do this. About Gaillac Wines Elyse is not a big fan of Bordeaux wines and Bourgogne are generally too expensive. But she loves Gaillac wines because they are quite unique. But, of course, when it comes to wine you should drink what you like! Gaillac wines are the oldest ones in France. When the Romans arrived in this area they soon found out that they made good wine here with their own grape varieties. Some of these grape varieties are still around, most are not. The Romans were really good at creating trading routes. But when the Roman Empire fell, a lot of the wine economy of this area fell into great difficulties and they didn't export wine for a long time. Later when monasteries were established all around the South West, they started making wine and selling it. They used the ancestral grape varieties and brought in new ones. Starting in the 800s and 900s Gaillac wines started to make a name for themselves. Even kings wanted to import this wine! It helped that you could navigate the Tarn and the Gironde using a boat called a "gabare". This made it possible to take the wine by boat all the way to the ocean in Bordeaux. Once the people who controlled access to the port in Bordeaux started to impose taxes they made Gaillac wines too expensive compared to Bordeaux wines and people forgot about Gaillac wines over time. But it's since made a big come-back and it's wonderful to see how many small producers make great wine in this area. Grape Varieties Used in the Gaillac Region In this area they use grape varieties called Loin de l'oil, and Mauzac and they are both unique to this area. They also use Muscadel and Sauvignon Blanc. Duras and Braucol are used in reds  and are unique to this area. You'll also find a little bit of Servadou noir. They make every sort of wine including whites, reds, a little bit of rosé, and a few sparkling wines. A very good bottle of Gaillac costs much less than a good bottle of Bordeaux or Burgundy. Why Are There So Many Pigeon Towers in the South West? There are pigeon towers all over France, but you'll see them especially in the south west of France. Some have fallen into disrepair, but many are being renovated. Even the broken down ones are protected and look really nice. Pigeon towers are there because the Counts of Toulouse and later the King of France decreed that to make Gaillac wines you needed to fertilize the land with pigeon poop and not cow manure. Bird fertilizer doesn't leave any specific odors or acidic taste in the soil, so it was the best way to fertilize. This is why piegon towers popped up all over the countryside so they could gather up bird excrement and use it on their land! Driving Around Gaillac Wine Country Elyse started her visit in the town of Rabastens then hopped on the D18, see map below. Along the way there are 5 chateaux that are open to the public. In the winter they are open by appointment and on week-ends, but in the summer months they keep longer hours. They drove a small section of the local wine road. When you visit you'll see signs directing you to the many more places. They went to Domaine de Mazou, Domaine Sarrabelle, Mas de Rious, Michel Issaly and Château de Saurs. It's lovely countryside driving surrounded by vineyards. Château de Saurs is special because they have an actual old château and this is the oldest wine producing chateau in the Gaillac area. It's a large wine producer, they have an italianate style garden and you can taste the wine. Elyse got to meet the "chatelaine". She's from the same family that created the Entrecôte and they supply Saurs wine to the restaurant. The chatelaine came across as a tad "hautaine" which means that she knows she's the cat's meow. Rabastens, L'Isles-sur-Tarn and Gaillac When you drive this route you should stop at these two charming towns and take a look around their historical center. Both Rabastens and L'Isle-sur-Tarn are dynamic because they attract younger families. The attraction is that they are pretty towns with reasonable real estate prices. From those towns you also have easy access to Toulouse via the freeway. Rabastens Rabastens is a cute town. Part of it is buit-up high up on cliffs above the Tarn river. There are wonderful old houses that are well-taken care of. The church, Notre Dame de Bourg has a facade that's classified as a UNESCO World Heritage. It's on the route de Compostelle. It's a charming small town with a funky little museum with a section on wine-making, archeology, roman ruins,  crafts, painting. L'Isle-sur-Tarn You might think from the name that this town is on an island, but it's not. It's called that because it's on a bend of the Tarn river. This is a bastide built in the middle of the 1200s on a grid system. The bastide center is lovely, has a huge open square and market. Like most bastides, the church is not on the center square. There are local houses called "pontet" where the houses connect from one side of the road to the other. Gaillac Gaillac itself is not particularly pretty or charming. It used to be somewhat decrepit and is trying to find its second wind. It is the center of wine distribution. You can visit the Abbey Saint Michel wine producer. The building is no longer an Abbey. They offer tasting of all the different wine producers of the area. More day trips from Toulouse FOLLOW US ON: Email | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest | Twitter     Discussed in this Episode Rabastens Lisle-sur-Tarn D18 Chateau de Saurs Domaine de Mazou Domaine Sarrabelle Mas de Rious Michel Issaly Loin de l'oil Mauzac Muscadel Sauvignon Blanc Duras Braucol Servadou noir The reason why we have pigeon towers in France Support the Show Tip Your Guide Extras Patreon Audio Tours Merchandise If you enjoyed this episode, you should also listen to related episode(s): Champagne Region, Episode 11 Wine Museum in Paris, Episode 124 French Wine Q&A for Beginners, Episode 162 The Saint Vincent Tournante Burgundy Wines Festival, Episode 98 Wine Touring in Beaune, Burgundy, Episode 128 French Wine Regions and Loire Valley Wines, Episode 28 Burgundy Region and Wine, Episode 57 Categories: Day -Trips from Toulouse, Toulouse Area