 LA BUCHE DE NOEL
12/24/2009
Large 10-12 people $29
Medium 6-8 people $24
Individual $4.50
Flavors are:
Vanilla, Chocolate, Mocha, Grand Marnier.
LA BUCHE DE NOËL
The BUCHE DE NOËL is probably the most popular and respected French tradition and until the last decades was only found in France.
The pastry BUCHE DE NOËL is the natural continuation of the Christmas Wood Log which burned with a spectacular ceremonial in our ancestor's fireplaces during the night of Christmas.
The Christmas Log is called: Sonco in Maine, Quenche in Lorraine, Tranche in Gascogne, or Cosse-de-Nau in Berry, and was always a huge piece of wood. Sometimes, several men were needed to carry it and place it in the fireplace just before the Christmas Mass.
The Christmas Log had to come from a "Virgin Oak" (never trimmed) cut at Midnight one week before Christmas, and before being fired was moistened with alcohol (Kirsh in Alsace, Calvados in Normandy, Armagnac in Languedoc...) diluted with Holy Waler. The Log could burn for more than three days, and the ashes were collected precautiously and then sowed around the house to protect it from lightning.
After WWI fire places were replaced by central heating systems, and they disappeared from the French houses. The tradition had to be kept, and what better item could replace the Wood Log than a piece of pastry soaked in alcohol, imitating the traditional Wood Log.
Currently, in France and at La Chatelaine, tie BUCHE DE NOËL are available in Genoise and Butter Cream (Vanilla, Chocolate-Mocha, Grand Marnier)
But, no matter what, the French family keeps the tradition of having a BUCHE DE NOËL on the table at Christmas dinner, going to Church even if not a believer, and sharing some presents under a decorated tree.
We have to be very vigilante with those traditions, they are the roots of our Culture - of our Identity. To let them go away, to forget them, even one time, would be losing our Soul - our Freedom.
MERCI.
LA CHATELAINE.
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