Christmas in Monaco
Attention Road Trips Foodies who are in Monaco for Christmas. Be sure to sample some of the principality’s traditional holiday specialties.
Musts: Barbajuan (a crisp, baked or fried puff pastry treat filled with Swiss chard, ricotta, leeks, garlic and herbs) and Fougasse (a small, sweet bread flavored with oranges and decorated with nuts, raisins and anise).
Don’t miss: U Pan de Natale. According to the legend, this Christmas bread was a big, round, homemade loaf baked from Monaco’s wheat and flour. Four to seven nuts were placed on top of the bread to form a Latin cross, an olive branch added to represent peace and a citrus branch to symbolize the richness of the Monegasque soil. The bread was blessed by families at home and at the midnight mass in the Roman Catholic Cathedral of Monaco (pictured) Christmas Eve.
Local bakeries bring back the tradition every year by offering U Pan de Natale a few days preceding Christmas in exchange for donations benefiting Monaco’s charities.
(Photo courtesy of Visit Monaco)
