In January 2024, customers queued outside a bakery in Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, to buy galettes des rois. The recently opened shop had won a regional prize for the best almond galette in Île-de-France, and local reporting documented the line drawn by its new reputation.
An Epiphany galette conceals a small fève, and the person who finds it in a slice is treated as king or queen. The shop queue was therefore both a purchase of a seasonal ritual to take home and a public display of customers eager to taste a newly awarded pastry.