Everybody gets chocolates from each other, but children’s beliefs are different. Instead of Easter Bunny coming, the ‘cloches’ come, which is the French for bells. They fly through gardens, dropping unbreakable eggs. So, every Easter eve, all kids go to bed, waiting for a giant bell to pass overhead!

In Easter 2004, when we lived in La Rochelle (on the west coast, between Nantes and Bordeaux) our neighbours knocked at the door, saying that the cloches dropped loads of eggs in the wrong garden, and asked us if we could come in after lunch to clean it up. We accepted straight away!

So after lunch, we all went in, on a big egg hunt. Mum and Dad went in to the house for coffee, my sister, my brother and I starting looking around for any sign of chocolate. Their garden was very big, full of perfect little spots here and there, so we spent nearly all afternoon looking for eggs. We found loads of stuff like giant chocolate rabbits, or chickens. It was a great Easter, the chocolates lasted forever.

Our neighbours across the road did the same thing that evening, as they had no children of their own. So that was us occupied for the day. A lot of people take holidays around that time, to spend Easter with their family. Some people even go skiing, especially if Easter falls early enough.

The other big thing here is the Easter Sunday meal. It’s a very big family meal. The whole family is around the table, to celebrate the feast. Older people also go to the church, to pray, sing and celebrate Easter there; but it’s more a family thing here than religious.

On Good Friday, in France, it’s just a normal day, all the bars and cafés open, but a lot of people still eat fish. The majority of my friends eat fish every Friday. I find this very odd, because France isn’t particularly a religious country. And, I’ve noticed, that most Fridays in school, fish is in the options for our meal, which is served up to us at the school restaurant. Last year, in my old school it was always fish, as well as most primary schools.

As I said in my last article (‘Letter from France’) the French love their chocolate. During the run-up to Easter, in supermarkets, some of the daily products are replaced by chocolate, from normal chocolate, to original hand made chocolates, and they take up something like 3 or 4 aisles.

Last Year, my dad went to the local supermarket, to buy some superglue, and discovered that it had been replaced by a chocolate chicken. So he came home with a chicken, instead of glue. My mum said he wouldn’t stick a lot with that, but we were all very happy with the egg!

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL
JOYEUSE PAQUES A TOUS

Right: Spring in Old Nice.