Greeting cards at New Year's

French have for habit and tradition to send out greeting cards for the new year. They rarely send Christmas greeting cards, but rather these "cartes de voeux" (voeux meaning wishes).

Traditionally, the French would go and visit friends, neighbors, family, business associates, even the poorer folk in the village during the first 15 days of January. As people moved more and as businesses set up branch offices all over the country, people started to send their personal "cartes de visit" around during January. These business or personal cards slowly developped into decorative cards. This trend started in the 17th Century in France.

Now it's acceptable to send cartes de voeux up through the end of January. Most people send e-cards but older people appreciate getting cards in the mail.

Here are some examples of early cartes de voeux.

Embroidered



A favorite from the 50s. Click to enlarge.




The growing use of greeting cards in January started to happen during the last years of the reign of Louis XIV, as shown by the poet La Monnoye in this ode to a carte de voeux. (the translation is my poor attempt in making this poem accessible to you all.)


Often, however light, I leave with the person who carries me,
Just a word in my own way is worth a long speech;
I have started to use, under the Great Louis,
those thin, long, flat, narrow cards of a delicate tissue.

The fingers of the less wise treat me badly;
calling me a thousand different names, I appear every day;
to surprised gentlemen I'm a great help;
Le Louvre (the king's palace) never sees my face at its door.

A rude, rough hand comes most of the time
to take from my hand to the most honnest people.
Private, administration, I'm born for the city life.

In the hardest of winters, I always have a naked back
And, however useful, as soon as they've seen me,
I'm neglected and I become garbage.

Le Sapin de Noël

Monsieur Titi went out yesterday and hunted us a Christmas tree. He only caught one of them, the littlest and scrawniest of the bunch. But then all Christmas trees deserve a little love.

I decorated it as best I could. But I couldn't put lights on it because they are too heavy and I didn't want the poor thing to fall over.

Trying to make it stand up straight

Naked and shivering

Oh, so much more beautiful

This is not its best side!

Père Noël et le Marché de Noël

 Friday evening was the Marché de Noël in Ouzouer. There are Christmas markets all over in almost every town. This one's been going for several years now. There aren't alot of stands but most of the exposants have made their own products.

It's also a time to see people from around the area that you haven't seen for awhile.
Here I am getting a hug from Père Noël.

Our association (La Comité de Jumelage) always has a booth and has a bake sale. Also, there is always a basket with English goods. People pay 1€ for a guess at its weight. At the end of the market, the winner is chosen. This kind of raffle is called a "tombola" in French.

One of the prettier stands

Father Christmas's Yurt

Friends' girls posing with Santa

I stayed about 2 hours. It was freezing cold, but spirits were high. We stayed warm drinking hot spiced wine (vin chaud) and gossiping. I don't know how much money was made by the association on the bake sale, but it's always a lot of fun.

Do you participate in any Christmas markets in your area?

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                                                                   Yesterday:

During the night:

This morning:



A new machine!

We just got our new lave-linge delivered. It's the European brand of Hotpoint, Indesit. It's pretty simple and wasn't expensive. But we've got a 5-year guarantee on it, so we should be worry-free for awhile.

Monsieur Titi went to the store where we bought the sick and dying machine to see if we could get a deal on a new one. The salesperson offered a 5% discount on a machine. But with the price plus the guarantee, it was 650€! Way too much. The new machine cost 428€ with the guarantee.

Monsieur Titi told the person that they were not very commercial and that they'd just lost a customer. It's rare when he gets stubborn like that, but I can assure you, he'll never go back into that store.

The first cycle is busy turning. I've got tons of laundry to catch up on.

%#&@#§€ !!!!! Washing Machine

My washing machine (or Lave-linge in French) died this past weekend and I'm not sure when we'll get a new one (or get this one fixed). It's only 3 years old and it's already been repaired once, just last year. We had the repairperson out from the store where we bought it, and he said it was indeed, dead. He took it with him to give us an estimate. But I figure that if the repairs are over 200€, it's better to buy a new one.

One of the main things we did wrong was to NOT get the 5-year guarantee. With this cold weather, washing undies out by hand isn't too much fun. Not being able to have clean towels is also pretty gross.

Rotten machine! I hate you!