Last year we spent Christmas in Paris with my parents who flew over from Finland. Traditional Finnish Christmas meal includes ham but I do not eat ham and my parents were curious to eat like the French, so this is what our Franco-Finnish Christmas meal looked like and consisted of:

1. Champagne for apéritif! My father was responsible for opening the bottle and my mother was ready with her glass (Finnish design, naturally). 

2. We begun with an Elegant amuse-bouche recipe for Christmas that included Russian caviar and scallops tarama:

3. And continued with oysters from Cancale  (oysters are an integral part of French Christmas): 

4. From oysters we moved onto foie gras (another integral part of French Christmas!): Until now we had been drinking champagne but this is when we switched to sweet white wine by Maison Lorgeril from Languedoc-Roussillon: Le Rêve de Pennautier, “Vendanges d’Après” Vin de France (BLANC MOELLEUX). An excellent choice, a sublime wine!!

5. After the oysters we enjoyed some Finnish smoked salmon….

6. …before moving to our already very famous French Christmas meal: stuffed goose from Les Provinces: We also opened another fantastic bottle of Maison Lorgeril from Languedoc-Roussillon: Mas des Montagnes, “Terroirs d’Altitude”,  AOC Côtes du Roussillon Villages. This extraordinary red went so well with the goose that we could only say “wow”. And continue eating.

7. After the goose it was finally time to dig into cheese and there is no better time to eat Mont d’Or than Christmas: (Unfortunately the wine (red Irancy) was not the most perfect choice to go with the cheese; especially after the previous wine)

8. If you now think we could not eat any more, you are wrong… For dessert, we had marron glacé and calissons: 

with some chocolate and vin chaud: 

Our Christmas was merry and delicious, and I hope yours was too!

If you want to know more about our cooking ingredients etc., have a look at this post too: Christmas meal essentials!

And to learn more about the wines, please go here:

• http://www.lorgeril.com/files/lorgeril/fiches-techniques-vins/fr/DF-Chateau-de-Pennautier-Le-reve.pdf
• http://www.lorgeril.com/files/lorgeril/fiches-techniques-vins/fr/Mas-des-Montagnes-Terroirs-d-Altitude-Rouge.pdf

PS If you liked this post, you may want to check out Pearlspotting’s Facebook page! Especially since I am flying to Venice tonight and will be updating from there too.