A French Christmas Eve dinner | A Coffee Break with Max

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Bonjour et bienvenue dans un nouveau petit épisode avec moi, Max. And today I would like to share with you a glimpse of what the réveillon de Noël Is Christmas Le réveillon de Noël. It's of course a warm and festive moment where we gather around a lot of delicious food. In France and many families, the special meal takes place on the evening of the 24th of December. Alors voilà comment se déroule normalement ce festin de Noël. Pour commencer, l'apéro, l'apéritif.

Like in many French families, we kick off Christmas Eve with l'apiro. It's a very convivial moment where we gather around un verre de vin ou de champagne accompanied by many light bites. You could have mini quiche, petit toast avec du saumon or du fromage, or the petit roulet a la saucisse. So mini quiche is the same in English. Petit toast avec du saumon ou des fromages means small toasts with salmon or cheese on top. And roulée à la saucisse are pigs in blankets.

So that's l'apéro. Okay? For the entrées, it's typically autour de 20 or 21 hours. Around 8 or 9 p.m., we have the starters. Avec les entrées, souvent des huîtres ou des escargots ou des noix de Saint-Jacques. My dad, for example, would never skip the escargot, snails, and he loves to eat them with garlic and parsley butter. The lye, garlic. Parsley butter. Les escargots, un grand classique.

Moi par contre je préfère les huîtres fraîches avec un peu de citron. I personally prefer fresh oysters. Les huîtres fraîches. Avec un peu de citron with a touch of lemon. Excellent. On continue, après les entrées, le plat principal. Now the main. Et chez moi, dans ma famille, c'est la dinde aux marron. The main course is usually in Dinde au marron, turkey with chestnut.

Encore une fois, a classique de Noël. It's souvent servie, usually served, with green beans, crunchy green beans, the haricots verts. Et des patates sautées. Perfectly golden sauté potatoes. And why not, if you feel like it, un petit verre de vin rouge. Then the table becomes a real feast where everyone enjoys themselves.

Alors après l'apéro, les entrées, le plat principal, bien sûr, le fromage. Christmas or not, no meal in France is complete without fromage, without cheese. E for Noel, we often offer a well stocked plateau de fromage, a cheese board, with 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 options different. Many, many options, but you need a lot of cheese to offer. Finally, to end on a sweet note, we enjoy a chocolate yule log. Une bûche au chocolat.

And not a family, it's toujour la bûche au chocolat. This is always a winner. It's a perfect thing to finish the meal on a sweet note after a hearty dinner. On finit sur une note sucrée. Après un repas copieux. Copio is a nice word for a repas, it's hearty. Et voila, that's it for the Christmas Eve dinner at my family. E che moi on donne le cadeau de Noel le 24 le soir. We do exchange gifts on the twenty fourth in the evening. So throughout the meal, because this meal lasts for five, six hours.

You exchange gifts, you do not wait until the twenty-fifth. It can be different in any family. Voila, that was a look at what Noel looks like dans ma famille, where each year the meal becomes a true culinary celebration. I hope you enjoyed this little journey and maybe it will inspire your own holiday meals. Je vous souhaite Fête de fin d'année et bien sûr, Happy Coffee Break! You have been listening to a Coffee Break Languages production for the Radiolingua Network. Copyright

2025 Radiolingua Limited. Recording copyright 2025 Radiolingua Limited. All rights reserved. is supposed to be boring. One staple of the At Verizon, the joy just Right now you can see the first one. Four new phones and four live. Critics agree. the field that keeps on giving.

Verizon.com for details. Hey, it's Raj. And Noah. And we're back with a new season of Am I Doing It Wrong? The show that explores the all-too human anxieties we have about trying to get our lives right. Because we're still doing a lot of stuff wrong. But who isn't? That's why each week we're

that we could all use a little helping hand with, whether it's making new friends as an adult, managing our emotions, or even dreaming. We'll be talking to experts in their fields who are definitely doing things right. So the rest of us can be a bit wiser and a lot better equipped to handle whatever life throws at us. Subscribe now and listen to new episodes of MID.

every Thursday starting January 1st, wherever you get your podcasts. And for the first time ever, we're gonna have full video episodes on YouTube. Because as long as there are things to get wrong, we're gonna be right here to help you.