If there’s any day to head to the local boulangerie to treat yourself to a tasty morsel for only a couple of euros (if you don’t have any room, find some bloody room!) then January 6th is the day. By rights your Christmas decorations should be down by now and what better way to bid farewell to the festive period by indulging in a galette des rois (literally ‘King’s cake’), a round puff pastry, frangipane-filled delight traditionally enjoyed to celebrate the festival of Epiphany, and sold throughout France for the whole month of January.

And who knew that baked goods could be so interactive? With each galette is sold a paper crown, and the one who gets to wear it is the person who finds the feve hidden in the filling. Traditionally this was an actual broad bean, but these day feves are far more exotic and interesting, and take the form of a little porcelain or plastic trinket in a mind-boggling array of designs, from works of art to cartoon characters. Sink your teeth into the hard little prize, and you get to be king for the day (and maybe earn a trip to the dentist as a bonus). Since over here they’ve officially run out of kings and queens, I’m going to enjoy my slice in front of a few episodes of The Crown…