Halloween in France
I've just spent another Halloween in France and thought I'd share my experiences with you. Halloween is not a tradition that I grew up with or one that I celebrated with my children as they grew up. However, the last two years I've been in France for Halloween and I've enjoyed two different experiences around the event. This year I was in Paris and last year I was at home in my village where I got involved in village Halloween activities and loved it!
Let me take a moment to set the scene. At my home in Australia our driveway is long, over 200 metres long, and after you leave the public roadway, our driveway goes down a steep hill and turns at 'the big tree' and it ends up at our house and small garage. The driveway is bordered by two metre high hedges on either side and there are no lamp-posts or solar lights and large gum trees filter any moon light.
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Because you cannot even see our home from the street, we have never in all our 27 years of living at this home had a single 'trick or treater' knocking on our door. Probably because we don't have anyone calling on us, and it's not a tradition that we've celebrated, we haven't got dressed up or even bought any sweets.
Halloween in Our Tiny Village
Now let's talk about our village house in France - it's the opposite situation. It's much more accessible, easily seen from the street and you can see if I'm home as any household lights shine through our curtains, and even with our kitchen shutter closed, light still escapes into the dark night. So last year I decided it'd be fun to get involved in the 'goings on' (as my aunt calls it) of Halloween in the village.
I started the day off by asking at the Tabac whether the local kids went tricking. When I got a big 'yes', I asked if there were any lollies to purchase as I couldn't see any on display in the store. John (name changed for anonymity), the Tabac owner dashed into the back of his store and quickly re-appeared with a large bag of mixed wrapped lollies.
Getting Ready for Halloween
I tipped the entire bag of lollies into an antique farming basket I had and left the curtains open so it was obvious I was at home. I popped back into the Tabac to find out if I needed to place an ornament or pumpkin at the front of the house so kids would know whether to knock or not, but I didn't end up getting a straight answer to that question, so just went with the open curtains. So with my fingers crossed that kids would know I was participating, I also turned the exterior balcony lights on. Time ticked by and it got later and later and no-one came to the house, so I was starting to think that the event would fizzle.
Later in the night there was a knock at the door and I was very happy to be able to share some of the, now seemingly oversupplied, bundle of lollies that I had bought. After hours of waiting there was only three children at the door. I tried to gift large hand-fulls of sweets to them, but the children were so polite they only took a couple. Goodness I thought, I'll be eating the left-over sweets till Christmas at this rate!
Trick or Treat
I seriously thought that more people would go tricking and realised that my large bag was definitely overkill. No wonder 'John' seemed a little surprised that I was eager to buy the whole bag he'd grabbed from his supply room.
Another family came a'knocking and they too were so polite that the heap of sweets in my basket barely reduced. I decided that it was late enough and that probably no more children would come around, as by now it was - in true French tradition - quite late in the evening for children to still be up and about.
Not long after this family walked away I had a flash thought that I'd give them the rest of the sweets if I could find them again. So I hurried out into the darkness looking for flash lights and listening for voices. I walked down the street and heard the children so I followed in the wake of their noise and came upon a house that was lit up. Now at this point I don't know what came over me, I am normally quite well mannered, and particularly when in France if I'm unaware of the protocol, I hold back. But this time I didn't. I went barging into the home that had the door open, was well lit and from where noisy chatter and laughing emanated from.
A Family Gathering
I sort of stumbled into the centre of a family gathering with grandparents, parents and the treat or tricking children unannounced and uninvited. I was so happy to find the children so I could give them all the sweets, that I just started telling everyone that they could have everything left. Oops, it really was a bit rude, but with great smiles and many merci beaucoup's, the family gathering seemed happy to accept the bright sugary loot. It only took a few minutes and then I left, walked all the way back home and then thought to myself (as I slowed down) that I had displayed rather bad manners in my rush to be generous.
Thankfully my generosity must have won over my bad manners because the children (who live on the outskirts of the village), their grandparents and parents, all still talk to me and are kind when I meet them at the Tabac or around the village.
Anyway, that was my first experience of getting involved in Halloween in France, and even if it didn't go perfectly smooth, I did enjoy myself.
Halloween in Paris
For Halloween this year I was in Paris and I enjoyed seeing the Halloween cakes, tartlettes and macarons cleverly sporting ghost, pumpkin or spider decorations. I'm not sure I could eat a cake with goggly eyes, but a cute orange cupcake would be no problem at all!
I found the contrast between the elegant Haussmann designed buildings and people with ghoulish make-up and scary costumes something new, but liked this fun experience of Halloween in France also.
Fifteen years ago when we bought our holiday home in France, Halloween was not 'a thing' (as people say), but the event is gaining popularity and my two different recent experiences of Halloween in France are now added to my very long list of wonderful French adventures.
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