Une Bouchée de la Buche Dans la Bouche

Try saying that ten times fast. One of the biggest problems I encounter here in France is wrapping my mouth around all those unfamiliar sounds that we Americans were never intended to pronounce. For me, the "ou" and "ue" are the hardest and the subtle differences between the two are impossible for me to articulate. Suffice it to say, words that contain these "ooo" sounds are the ones that I hear my husband, my mother-in-law and any other native French speaker correcting me on to no end.

In any case, I digress from the real subject at hand which is to post a photo of our Buche de Noël (many of you asked to see), which I had been raving about and unfortunately, didn't live up to our expectations.
I don't want to name names cause it comes from a very well-regarded bakery and normally, their pastries are delicious; I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt as I'm sure the holiday rush meant normal care to attention got thrown out the window -- though I really shouldn't given the price I paid. This was billed as a "biscuit Sacher, mousse au chocolat caramel vanillé, mousse légère Gianduja noisette lait, croustillant praliné fruité." They promised that we would "discover the sweetness of Orizaba chocolate with subtle notes of caramel and vanilla." Sounds delicious, no? In fact, it was a thick, heavy mess of what can be best described as nut-flavored buttercream; there were even crushed nuts scattered inside which we were not expecting. Oh, where was the light mousse promised? And the chocolate? The best part was the caramel that had been drizzled on top -- unfortunately there wasn't enough of this to go around. Thankfully someone had thought to bring us a box of Godiva which saved the dessert course! Hope you all enjoyed your Christmas festivities!