Crumbs to Crunch

Have you ever wanted to experience a scene from a film? I love the moment in Tangled when Rapunzel arrives in the kingdom, dances to folk music and lights a lantern.   My dream came true yesterday in Lannion. I heard that Santa was in town and as I am full of Christmas cheer, I went to find him. I did not realise that Santa's possy would be a Breton bagpipe marching band!  To celebrate Christmas, the whole town was given a lantern and a free cup of mulled wine or hot chocolate. Fuelled with hot beverages and festive cheer, we marched through the medieval streets, clutching our lanterns and following the sound of the bagpipes. It felt so special to be part of a tradition so different from my own.  The festivities did not end there. The next morning, I got up bright and early to watch the Trail Urban - a 5km fun run. I loved seeing so many runners dressed as Father Christmas. They had to run up some very steep steps which lead to a church on top of a

I recently rediscovered how much I love drawing with crayons. You might be wondering how are crayons related to cake. Well, while I was waiting for my Chocolat Gourmand (more on that later), the owner of Crêperie Le St Glinglin slammed a pot of crayons down on the paper tablecloth. He said very seriously "No joke!" and waited for me to start drawing. I must say that I have absolutely no idea why he insisted that I do some colouring as none of the other customers were given crayons. However,  I gladly picked up my first crayon in years and started drawing. I found that it was very relaxing and wondered why people stop stop using crayons past the age of six. When my Chocolat Gourmand arrived it was magnificent. My hot chocolate was placed on a chopping board accompanied by lots of mini desserts: Crème brûlée ice cream A salted caramel and apple muffin A brownie Melted Chocolate and banana A Canelé (a mini sponge from Bordeaux) This marvellous

"Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." but what do you do if you don't have a fireplace? Nothing feels more cosy and festive than chestnuts so I was very happy to discover the delights of chestnut moelleux at  Le Bistrot à Lire  in Quimper.  You may be wondering what moelleux are and how on earth to say this peculiar French word. A helpful waitress coached me on the pronunciation - mweh-luh . I felt oh so very French attempting to say such a foreign word! These little cakes are baked for a couple of minutes so the centre is all gooey. The result is a silky smooth hot chestnut treat.  My moelleux was accompanied with the Italien Thé des Ecrivains (fig and quince tea)  as part of the cake and hot drink deal for €6.10.  Le Bistrot  à Lire is also a bookshop so I felt perfectly at home polishing off my chestnut dessert while thumbing through books from all over the world. You can't get more cosy than that!