We only got two kids (together) for Halloween this year - I opened the door to two boys (aged about ten), with a pumpkin-shaped bucket who yelled "sweets please"! I said .... "Ummmm you're supposed to be dressed up for Halloween you know?!" And they went "Oh yeah, we've got masks but they're in our pockets" ....then pulled out rubber masks that were so old and broken they wouldn't even stay on and that was it ! So I put in as much effort as they did and gave them all the skanky penny sweets kicking around in the bottom of Sophie's sweetie tin that she doesn't like !!!
France kicks back against anything English/American anyway so they don't really like Halloween, they prefer St Martin, which is next week on the 10th. They carve out sugarbeet (the bog standard local crop) instead of pumpkins (which is what we did this afternoon ). Then there's a night-time procession of all the kids with their carved sugarbeet lanterns (or modern cardboard ones!) following St Martin (who looks a bit like Father Xmas with a red robe and big white beard) and his donkey, who gives out sweets, and at the end, they all get volaaren, little bread rolls (normally with raisins or chocolate chips in). The tradition is that St Martin lost his donkey in the dunes (because he was in the pub, according to the traditional song !!! ) so he sent out all the kids to help him find it .... and when they found it by following the piles of poo, he turned the poo into bread ... so the volaaren are supposed to be donkey-poo shaped !!! (I'm not making this up, honestly!!! )
Anyway, I'm sounding much too much like a teacher and I'm still on holiday for one more day so I'll just show you the pics of our hard work instead !!!
Before ... a virgin sugarbeet !!!
After - the left one looks a little bit too Halloweeny so the donkey one (no, it's not a rabbit or a kangaroo !!!) is the one Sophie will be entering into the competition!!! All entrants get a prize !
"Look judges, all my own work, honestly !!!"
