aixcentric

Dec 4 is the feast of Sainte-Barbe and the traditional day for planting your blé d’ésperance.

If you are new to the area, this is the mix of seeds sold in little packets everywhere in town for 1€. The custom is to germinate the seeds on damp fabric on the window-sill so that you soon have lovely green shoots. You tie a red satin ribbon around them and place them on your Christmas Eve table as a pretty Provençal centrepiece and to ensure prosperity for the following year.

The commercialisation of this ancient custom took off 25 years ago when a group of local people began selling the seeds specifically to raise money to decorate areas of hospitals in Marseille where children are treated. Colourful panels, bright decorations and toys can transform the usual sterility of the hospital environment and make it less frightening. ‘Un enfant qui joue, c’est déja un enfant qui va mieux’ is the philosophy.

I’m not sure where the charity-based blé d’ésperance is on sale in Aix – maybe pharmacies. But you can buy it from people around town who seem to do a roaring trade.

Mine usually has to wait until we get back to England. But last year I started it off here then transported it back in hand-luggage. The security people at Marseille airport were happy to send little pots of sprouting corn through the X-ray machines but the real challenge was to find a few rays of sun on my English window-sill to make it grow.  In fact it ended up in the airing cupboard, the nearest thing to Provence in Oxfordshire…

As the locals say: Quand le blé va bien, tout va bien.