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Pumpkin spice?
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Is pumpkin spice a thing in France?
Barely. You will find it in places catering to an international crowd and increasingly in some chains, but it has no roots. French autumn arrives as ingredients rather than as a flavour campaign, and the difference between those two things is most of the answer.
What do the French do with pumpkin?
Soup, mainly. Velouté de potiron is the default: squash, stock, cream, nutmeg, done. It is savoury, it is a starter, and it is genuinely good — which makes the leap to a sweetened coffee syrup harder to explain than it sounds.
This or that
How American Is Your Halloween?
One pumpkin or nineteen? A door or a twelve-foot skeleton? Six this-or-that questions.
Take the quizSo what did he say?
That a season should not have a flavour, and that August is not autumn. Both defensible. He then ate the soup version twice in one week, so the objection is to the marketing rather than to squash.
Questions, answered
Do French people like pumpkin spice?
It is largely unknown in France. Pumpkin is treated as a savoury autumn vegetable, mostly used in soup, and the idea of a seasonal coffee flavour has little cultural foothold.
Do the French eat pumpkin?
Yes, but savoury. Potiron and courge appear in soups, gratins and purees. Velouté de potiron — a creamy squash soup — is the most common preparation.
Is pumpkin pie French?
No. Pumpkin pie is American. French autumn baking leans toward apple, pear and plum tarts rather than squash desserts.
Still wondering?
Ask my French husband.
A short ruling in a few seconds. Written by AI from our Journal, in his voice.
He judges America weekly on Instagram, and Le Bulletin collects the best of it.
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