The Diplomat
A joke played by the French Embassy in Madrid on its Twitter and Instagram accounts, attributing the origin of Valencian paella to the French Camargue, set fire to the internet with comments last Friday.
On that day, 1 April, France, like other European countries, celebrates the Poisson d’avril (April Fish), the equivalent of April Fool’s Day, 28 December, in Spain, a day favourable for playing pranks. For this reason, the French diplomatic representation posted a photograph of a paella on its Twitter account, along with a text that read: “Yet another proof of the historical strength that unites our two countries. A team of gastronomic historians has just discovered something surprising! The famous Valencian paella actually has its origins in the French Camargue”.
He went on to explain that “in the Middle Ages, the peasants of the region prepared large rice dishes with meat for village celebrations, such as weddings. Packets of uncooked rice were then kept and thrown to the newlyweds as they left the church for good luck’. It concluded: ‘It was a 15th century rice trader, eager for new cultures, who would have gone along the coast to Valencia and spread this recipe, to which the Spaniards added saffron and tomato sauce’.
The Embassy never explained that it was a joke, and when there were already 1,800 comments, many of them indignant at the “offence”, it was when it posted another tweet stating: “And the paella has “poisson d’avril” in it. Today is April 1st, April Fool’s Day in France! Paella is 100% Valencian, and we love it”.
