Residents make pancakes with a wood fire at Valennes, near Le Mans, north-western France, on February 17, 2021. - Since the 1905 French law on the Separation of the Churches and the State, the secular traditional event of cooking pancakes on wood fires is organised on Ash Wednesday, a Christian holy day of prayer and fasting. This year, because of the Covid-19 pandemic, the cooking took place in private gardens, and the carnival, that usually takes place at the same time, was cancelled. (Photo by JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER / AFP)