Provençal Christmas treats
We are in the South of France at our Olive Farm. The weather is warm, the sun is shining and we are able to work outside on the land until late afternoon.
There is no snow. Snow is a very rare event here. I think I have seen flurries of it twice in over thirty years. When it settles though it is quite beautiful and is usually accompanied by the sun shining across the Mediterranean in the distance.
Do I crave those colder, snowier Christmases I enjoyed as a child? Not at all. I have embraced the differences of this lifestyle and enjoy them.
Here, we eat our principal Christmas meal – le grand repas, or gros souper – on the evening of the 24th December. It will frequently include oysters, cheap as chips here, though this year we have not put them on our menu. The local poissonneries (fish shops) tend to erect a marquee outside their main shop. Here the oysters are chosen and prepared and laid out on round trays to take home and put directly on the table.
Lunch on the beach on Christmas Day is also a tradition. Plenty of oysters being served there.
Almost every family home will include its own crib and in the crib are to sure to be at least four or five santons. There are dozens to choose from.
Interviews
- Interview with Carol Drinkwater, author of the Olive Series The Good Life France. 0
- Interview for WAMC's The Roundtable, Northeast Public Radio USA An award-winning, nationally recognized eclectic talk program. 0
- A Python’s Paradise: Carol Drinkwater Interview A Clockwork Orange 50th anniversary exclusive! 0
- NAW Interview with Carol Drinkwater New Asian Writing Online Asian Literary Community interviews Carol following the publication of Hotel Paradise 0
- Daily Mail: Emotional ties with actress and author Carol Drinkwater Carol on notebooks, her obsession with olives, getting married in the Cook Islands, showbiz running in the family and her days on All Creatures Great & Small 0
- The Irish Times, December 2017 From award-winning actor to bestselling author: John Rainsford discovers the emotional outpouring behind the writer’s latest novel. 0
- Carol Drinkwater Lives the Good Life in France (and Writes About It Too) The Thin Reads Interview with Carol Drinkwater, Author of “Hotel Paradise” 0
- Writer's Forum Where I Write: Phil Barrington visits novelist Carol Drinkwater at her French olive farm 0
