Crêpe: where to taste it at Christmas markets

A crêpe is a thin pancake made from a liquid batter of wheat flour, eggs and milk, cooked on a hot plate and topped with sugar, jam or chocolate, and because it is cooked to order in front of the customer it is a hot snack found at Christmas markets from Brittany to the Côte d’Azur.

Crêpe or galette: what is the difference at the stall

In Brittany, two batters share the griddle. The buckwheat galette, made with black wheat, was for a long time the staple of peasant cooking. It is filled with egg, ham, cheese or andouille. The wheat crêpe, sweeter and softer, was the one for feast days: butter and sugar, jam, chocolate. The two words are sometimes used for each other, and in the Gallo-speaking part of Brittany galette is the word used when it wraps a sausage.

At the stall, the crêpe is cooked to order on the billig, the Breton griddle, then folded in four or rolled into a cone. Cider goes with it: sweet with crêpes, dry with galettes, sometimes served in a bolée.

Where to eat a crêpe at a Christmas market

In Brittany, made-to-order crêpes hold the stalls more than gingerbread does. Brest serves them with salted butter, Lorient makes them with wheat flour, Vannes serves them hot, and Quimper, Locronan and Rennes offer crêpes and galettes side by side. Our guide to Christmas markets in Brittany goes through these stalls.

Elsewhere in France, the crêpe shares a chalet with waffles and chestnuts in Dole, Meaux, Blois, Bourges and Deauville. It is found on the Côte d’Azur, in Antibes and Cannes, and in Villeneuve-d’Ascq in the north. In Münster, in Germany, a crêpe stand even finds a place at the Aegidii market.

Crêpe in pictures