Easter is a wonderful holiday in France, when the schools are off and Spring flowers are starting to bloom…after a bit of light frost!

For Easter Sunday lunch, I prepare the traditional lamb. Take a look at my menu on the website : https://VignesetMets.com/menu/april/

When my children were small, I would prepare an Easter egg hunt in our garden just before breakfast. Or do Easter egg painting, like my Mother did with us. I even took them to a Pysanka workshop, to learn the art of painting Ukrainian Easter eggs.

Once the Easter egg hunt was over, we would have a nice breakfast and thereafter, either go to Easter mass, or go and visit a local park, where there would be children’s activities, games, etc. Or just walk through the gardens of a nearby château to see the flowers in bloom.

Chocolate is a must for Easter. Always remember to bring a nice box of choclates and a bouquet of flowers (tulips are my favorite!) when you are invited.

One year, we drove to Reims to visit the beautiful cathedral (1211) dedicated to Mary, mother of Jesus, where French kings were crowned, with its 2,300 statues, where one can admire beautiful stained glass windows, some of them dating back to the 13th century, with some more recent ones, done by Chagall in 1974.

In France we have Easter Monday, which makes for a nice long weekend, to spend at the seaside, at Le Touquet, one of my favorite seaside resorts, close enough to drive to from Paris.

One of my favorite Easter desserts is the Colomba, an Italian brioche/panettone, with candied fruits. As many Easter desserts, it is a brioche type bread using eggs, which are forbidden during Carême (40 days preceding Easter). Here is a simple Brioche recipe from my Petit Larousse de la Cuisine (1998) :

150 g de beurre (temperature ambiente)

5 g de levure de boulanger

1 c. à soupe de lait

190 g de farine

20 g de sucre semoule

3 oeufs entiers

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Joyeuses Fêtes de Pâques !

Happy Easter! Frohe Ostern! Buona Pasqua !