La tradition de la Galette des Rois

"La tradition de la Galette des Rois" has been shared to the blog from the French reading exercises section of the learning library where you can find a large selection of interactive texts to help you with your reading skills. This article also has audio for you to practice your French listening skills; you can find many more listening activities in the French listening practice section.


Galette des RoisHave you ever eaten a Galette des Rois? This famous French cake, eaten only in January, contains a surprise! It’s a tradition involving beans, figurines, kings and queens and you can read all about this essential part of French culture.

You can listen to the French audio while reading the transcript (click to see the English translation and links to grammar lessons). When you’re done, scroll to the end to kwiz yourself on some of the French grammar featured here.

La tradition de la Galette des Rois

Introduction
Mais qu’est-ce que la Galette des Rois ?
Comment célèbre-t-on la Galette des Rois ?

Click any word in the text to see its translation and related grammar lessons.

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Author info

Aurélie Drouard

Aurélie is our resident French Expert. She has created most of the wonderful content you see on the site and is usually the person answering your tricky help questions. She comes from a small village near Chartres in Central France, country of cereal fields and not much else. She left (in a hurry) to study English at the world-famous Sorbonne in Paris, before leaving France in 2007 to experience the “London lifestyle” - and never looked back! She's worked as a professional French teacher, translator and linguist in the UK since.  She loves to share her love of languages and is a self-professed cinema and literature geek!

Laura K Lawless

Laura is a French expert and Kwiziq's Head of Quality Control. Online educator since '99, Laura is passionate about language, travel, and cooking. She's American by birth and a permanent ex-pat by choice - freelancing made it possible for her to travel extensively and live in several countries before settling permanently in Guadeloupe. Laura is the author of Lawless French, Lawless Spanish, and other websites and books on French, Spanish, Italian, English, and vegetarianism. She spends most of her spare time reading, playing with food, and enjoying water sports.

Comments: 3

Peut-être est-ce l'origine du 'King Cake' traditionnellement mangé pendant le Mardi Gras le long de la côte du Golfe des USA. Ce gâteau est un gâteau doux, recouvert de glaçage, mais il contient une petite figure d'un bébé, dit de représenter le bébé Jésus. Trouver le bébé dans le gâteau roi est bonne chance pour le reste de l'année.

Oui, tout à fait.

La fève is translated above first as "charm" but later fève is translated as "fava bean". Was the fava bean also known as a charm in earlier times? I'd like to understand this more please. Merci.