February 2nd is a Big Day!

Saturday was February 2nd, in case you didn't know. We did nothing all morning, then around 3 o'clock took the kids to the indoor pool to swim. That involved going to the pool, returning home to fetch a swimsuit for myself and my friend, because we are required to wear a bathing suit as we sit on the benches watching our children swim. And of course, entering the pool means you have to pay. So I got to pay to wear my swimsuit and watch my children swim. Very practical!

But after swimming, we ate dinner and made crepes, because a month cannot go by in France without their being a holiday involving eating something delicious.

Read and learn:
In France, crêpes were traditionally served on Candlemas (La Chandeleur), February 2. This day was originally Virgin Mary's Blessing Day but became known as avec Crêpe Day, referring to the tradition of offering avec crêpes. It is believed that if you could catch the crêpe with a frying pan after tossing it in the air with your left hand and holding a piece of gold on your right, you would become rich that year.

But let us not forget that another important holiday was being celebrated in a distant land:
Groundhog's Day is a holiday celebrated in United States and Canada on February 2. In weather lore, if a groundhog, also known as a woodchuck, marmot, or ground squirrel, emerges from its burrow on this day and fails to see its shadow because the weather is cloudy, winter will soon end. If the groundhog sees its shadow, it will return into its burrow, and the winter will continue for 6 more weeks.

And now, a third celebration can be added right along with Punxsutawney Phil and eating crepes:

PARIS, France (AP) -- French President Nicolas Sarkozy married former model Carla Bruni on Saturday at the Elysee Palace, according to the official who performed the ceremony.

Carla Bruni and Nicholas Sarkozy were wed on Saturday. They are pictured here in Egypt last December.

"The bride wore white; she was ravishing, as usual," Francois Lebel, mayor of Paris' eighth arrondissement, or neighborhood, told Europe-1 radio. "The groom wasn't bad either."

It was a historic occasion, "the first time in the history of the Republic that a president has got married in office," as Lebel said.

Sarkozy, 53, and Bruni, 40, were married in the presence of about 20 close family and friends, Lebel said. He called the ceremony "a moment of family intimacy for the young newlyweds, of great simplicity and apparently a lot of affection between the spouses.

.........................................................................................................................................................................

Sarkozy and his new wife can celebrate every year eating crepes in Pennsylvania!