This year, Aux Petits Soins will be holding a series of monthly family-friendly get-togethers based around French holidays and traditions. Our first event held last month, the King Cake Party, was a resounding success, and we look to carry that energy into this month’s celebration, the Chandeleur Party.
Chandeleur is a distinctly French tradition, which essentially consists of getting together with friends and family, eating crêpes and drinking cider — not a bad way to celebrate the halfway point of winter, no? There are an increasing number of French-themed business in mid-Michigan, and we’ve teamed up with one of the most high-profile ones —For Crêpe Sake, a crêperie in downtown Lansing — to throw the Chandeleur Party on Sunday, Feb. 26 from 3-5 p.m. There will be crêpes, cider, activities for the kids, a French lesson and more. The grown-ups will even get a chance to try their hand at crêpe fipping, which can be surprisingly difficult until you develop a technique. More details here.
Next month, I’ll be introducing Metro Lansing to the French celebration of Carnaval. While most Americans are aware of the French roots of Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) — or, as I hear that it’s called here in Michigan, “Paczki Day” — most aren’t as familiar with Carnaval (Carnival), which is big in southern France and throughout the Caribbean, where there are many French departments and therefore a lot of French history. That party will be held March 26 at Hannah’s Koney Island in East Lansing. More details here.