Thanksgiving in France?

This is the first year in my entire life that I did not celebrate Thanksgiving in the United States. Cécile wanted to share this tradition with her family. Since we got Cécile in December, we never had a Thanksgiving with her. So, we decided to have a traditional Thanksgiving meal together. 

Little did we know, it was going to be a challenge to find certain items. The search for a turkey was our first order of business. Jean Marie, Cécile’s dad, texted us that he found a turkey, but he needed to know what size in kilograms to buy. Of course, this was not a problem because we know ALL Americans can make these conversions with ease. Actually, it was not an issue for the Floreses. Lol. The issue came when Cécile texted us that Simon got a turkey. 🦃🦃!!! Luckily, only one was purchased. 

The next challenge was to find cranberries. Yes, my Bandonian friends, this was an interesting quest. We looked at all the marches and super marches. We checked our local Les Halles Market, for dried cranberries. Nothing! A few years ago, this may not have bothered me. But I now live in, what I consider, the cranberry capital. I had to find cranberries even if they were dried and I had to rehydrate them. I was determined. We went into a jam store and found a jam that contained cranberries and other berries. I was getting desperate; I bought it. The salesman informed us that the younger generation does not know the French word for cranberry because they do not have them. This was not encouraging news. We finally found dried cranberries at a street market in Arles. Arles is about an hour bus ride away from Nîmes. In  France, it is very common for fruit to be labeled with where the fruit was grown. Guess what! The cranberries were labeled, U.S.A. The gentleman was very happy to sell us several scoops. I am sure you are happy, too, that that story is over. 

Another first for me was that there would not be any pumpkin pie. Not even a frozen one. 😔

In the end, we were all happy because we got to enjoy each other’s company over a very good meal. After all, Thanksgiving is about being with people you love! 

Smiles all around!

We almost carved the very fresh preservative-free turkey before taking the photo. 

Can you see my homemade cranberry sauce and stuffing? Yes, there isn’t Stove Top in France, too. France has the best bread though! That loaf was made by Cécile’s cousin who owns a boulangerie/patisserie. 😋


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