On Friday 6 January, the Drawing of the kings at SIG in Paris and Aix en Provence.
A little history...
La galette des Rois is a cake traditionally sold and eaten in France, Quebec, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium and Lebanon on the occasion of Epiphany, a Christian holiday celebrating the visit of the Magi to the Christ child on 6 January.
In the Middle Ages, it was customary to divide the galette into as many portions as there were guests, plus one. This last one, called "God's share", "Virgin's share" or "poor man's share" was destined for the first poor person who came to the house.
The king's cake or galette des rois...
In the South of France, the galette des Rois is called the gâteau des Rois: a round brioche, flavoured with orange blossom essence and covered with sugar and candied fruit. It is also called "galette des rois", "couronne des rois" or "royaume" and is opposed to the frangipane cake, sometimes called "galette parisienne", which is however also consumed by a part of the population. 97 % of French people still eat galettes or gâteau des rois.
Map of the geographical distribution of the galette and the king's cakes in France according to the departments:
- Dark green: Galette des rois at 100 %.
- Light green: Galette des rois between 50 and 75 %.
- Dark orange: King's cake at 100 %.
- Light orange: King's cake between 50 and 75 %.
This year, we have again elected new kings who were exclusively queens! Without cheating, we elected in Paris :
- Celine Sensari (Reporting Department)
- Graciète Goncalves (Back Office Sales Force)
- Latifa Goujil (Customer Service Manager)
And in Aix and respecting the tradition: the youngest under the table in order to allocate the slices of cake, thanks to Melissa (trainee in the Merchandising department):
- Audrey Giavelli (Ponctual Merch Assignment)
- Marion Mercier (Training)
Long live the SIG 2017 queens!!!
