Dear readers,

This year, I am sending all my best wishes for the holiday season all the way from France where I am spending Christmas with my family and taking a little break from work and the blog.

Thank you so much for following along this year, reading my posts and leaving lovely comments on the way. It always means a lot to me.

I look forward to sharing more stories, travels and recipes with you all next year!

Joyeux Noel, have a wonderful time!

Yolène

Oh I love a good Christmas market! A couple of weeks ago, I suggested we head to Belfast for a day and spend time checking out the one there. We were there two years ago and from the good memory we had of it, train tickets were immediately booked so we could go visit it again.
This time, we took our Catalan friends with us for the day. The train trip from Dublin to Belfast is quite nice and relaxing. Shortly after leaving Dublin, we started seeing snow covered landscapes which really put us in the mood for everything Christmas related.
After arriving in Belfast, we took a detour via St George's Market and then headed for the Christmas Market.

As Christmas is fast approaching, I see entire crowds in the streets, department stores and shopping centres of Dublin with many many bags of gifts in their hands. Many years ago, I was part of that crowd of people. I would make a nice list of things I wanted to get for my friends and family and would brave the busy streets of Dublin to buy everything and make sure I could pile a lot of presents under the Christmas tree.
With the years, I have grown really tired of 'stuff'. I think I have learned to appreciate a different type of things and to put more value on a happy lifestyle rather than material things. At home, we recently started a very big session of decluttering and I discovered we owned a whole lot of very unnecessary things. I discovered what was more valuable to my life and what was not.

This leads me to Christmas gifting and receiving. I love Christmas and I adore coming up with beautiful thoughtful gift ideas every year. But this year, I want to be extra thoughtful and give presents that do not create clutter in someone else's life. I came up with a list of things and I hope this can be helpful to others who are also interested in a more minimalist approach to Christmas gifting.

Happy holidays to all of you lovely readers!
Thanks for following my little stories over the years (Crème de Citron will be 5 next Summer, can you believe it?!), it is always so lovely knowing people are enjoying my stories and recipes.

As we alternate spending Christmas here in Ireland or in France every other year, this year will be in Dublin. I am even taking over cooking the bird which I am very excited about. And no, it will not be a turkey since I am going to bring my little French touch with my family's favourite: capon! I was able to get it here and I plan to make a stuffing with chestnuts, prosciutto ham, rosemary and brandy.
And since I am not a fan of plum puddings and Christmas cakes (sorry not sorry), I am also making a bûche de Noël (Yule log) with poached pears and white chocolate mousse so I can partake in the dessert cheerfulness.
And since I am also taking a little staycation from work and my computer, I will be back on the blog next year with more delicious recipes, lifestyle and travel stories.

I hope that whatever your plans are this year, you get to enjoy some good realxing times over the holidays, Joyeux Noël!!

I always associate a wintery cosy moment with a lovely hot drink. I do drink a lot of infusions and green teas on a daily basis but sometimes, I just want that special mug of goodness: hot chocolate. I love, love, love chocolate and indulging in a rich and delicious beverage made with it is one of my Winter simple pleasures.
In one of my first jobs in Ireland, I spotted a chocolate shop near where I worked and once I had a taste of the hot chocolate, it almost became my daily stop after finishing work and having to walk in the cold towards the train station.
If I visit a new country or city during Winter months on one of my travels, I like checking out the best places for that wonderful chocolate beverage. So far, the best I tried was in L.A. Burdick on Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts (USA). It was such a heavenly luxurious hot chocolate, I still dream of it every now and then.

Since it is only about a month away, I guess it is now ok to mention the word 'Christmas'. I try not to pay attention to it until we get closer to the actual date and I feel like a month is enough time.
We were in Belfast last weekend and got to marvel at the lovely Christmas market over there (I also wanted to eat absolutely everything but since it wasn't even 10am when we walked through it, French tartiflette and other savoury delights might have been a bit indulgent. I settled for a sugar crepe at a French stall, and it was really delicious with its orange blossom flavour). Visiting it really got me in the mood for all things Christmas.

This year, I decided to make our own advent calendar. I usually get one every few years but I thought a homemade version would be nice for a change.
I thought about what would my dream food advent calendar be like. Imagine waking up each December day leading up to Christmas Eve and finding some wonderful sweet delights. I would wake up to find some French pastries (croissant, pain au chocolat), desserts (Paris-Brest, tarte tatin, profiterole, chocolate mousse) or mini sweet things (macarons, meringue kisses, madeleines, chocolates), that would be the absolute sweet dream!

But let's face it, the logistics of it are a bit difficult (I don't think it would be a dream to find some days old desserts sitting in one of those boxes for a while) and I am not sure my stomach could cope with it. Let's leave some room for the Christmas feast!
Instead, I filled our advent calendar with various delicious chocolates and coffee capsules (I don't drink coffee but E. does so I thought it would be nice to have surprises that suit us both).

What would your dream food advent calendar be like? Sweet or savoury?