Fabophile.

The other evening, we were watching the daily video news roundup on French television channel Canal+: " Le zapping" - clips of everything viral, newsworthy, tragic, hilarious, banal, comic, impressive and idiotic in France, or according to the French (if you are a francophile, this is one way to stay connected to what is going on in French people's heads).

I seriously perked up when I saw a strange image and heard the word "fabophile." There she was, Madame Jacqueline Goepfert of Pfastatt (quite a mouthful). Behind her lovely ~70 year-old head were tiny shelves full of her collection: the trinket/toy/figurine one finds in the middle of the traditional Galette des Rois - la fève. To be more precise, she had 123,000 fèves. Every spot in her apartment was covered in the things.

You see, un fabophile: c'est un collectionneur de fèves (it is a collector of fèves). I looked into it a bit more. There are three kinds of fèves: Les Santons - religious themed; Les fèves standards - the most common found in cakes in all boulangeries (like the one featured above); Les personnalisées - these are of the highest value because they are limited edition pieces - in cakes sold only in special places. Oh my! The Galette des Rois tradition was already one of my favorites chez les Français, but this, this(!) brings that status even higher.

Check her out.

Fast forward to 2:06 in the footage and you'll catch a glimpse of her collection (watch the first part too if Gerard Depardieu's defection interests you):

ZAPPING ACTU DU 08/01/2013 by lezapping

I bet she belongs to AFF: Association des Fabolphiles Français. If we ever move back to France, you can guess which club I am joining.

Get the whole Galette des Rois story here.