February 10, 2011/ altair / European Vacations

Do you want to escape your boring daily routine? Do you feel like having adventure? What about the Lemon Festival? Haven’t heard about it? It’s just right time!

The Lemon Festival in Menton (French Riviera, France)

The Lemon Festival – the “Fete du Citron” carnival – is a quite unique event that attracts more than 250,000 people from around the world each year. The Lemon Festival takes place every February. It’s the second biggest event on the Riviera after the Carnival of Nice and before the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Monaco.

Menton, nicknamed the Pearl of France, is located on the Mediterranean Sea at the Franco-Italian border. It boasts a warm micro-climate favorable to lemon, tangerine, and orange groves whence one of the town’s symbols, the lemon.

The Lemon Festival require services of over 300 professionals and thousands of lemons and their sisters oranges (145 tons of citrus fruit!!!) to build different creative sculptures and mosaics. Can you imagine that? The Festival parades and monumental compositions are exclusively made up of oranges and lemons. Every year a series of giant statues tell a story in the Jardins Biovès (Bioves Gardens).

The town comes alive on Sunday mornings, when coaches and cars dance through the streets, an endless farandole of people swaying down the alleyways to the sea. Laughter and joy shine from happy faces everywhere. A wide-eyed child stares in wonderment at the confetti showering from the sea blue sky… Creative masks and sumptuous costumes abound; fanfares twirl and zigzag through the citrus-laden floats to the sound of traditional drums.

How It Is All Started

In the late 19th century, in an attempt to boost Menton’s winter tourism, hoteliers proposed organizing a town parade. The project was designed with wealthy holiday-makers in mind and eventually Menton became THE place to pass the winter months. Kings, princes and artists alike filled the luxury hotels or their own magnificent villas.

Menton became the continent’s premier producer of lemons in 1929 and the first flower and citrus exposition was organized at the Hotel Riviera gardens. It was so successful that the following year, the exposition extended into the streets with wagons beautifully planted with oranges and lemons. In order to develop tourism, the parade was given a title reflecting the feel of Menton and in 1934 the Lemon Festival or Fête du Citron was officially born.

The festival follows a given theme each year; past themes include Viva España, Disney, Neverland, and India. The festival lasts a few days, with different bands passing through Menton’s streets on foot or on truck trailers. The Casino Gardens in the centre of town are decorated in the theme of the festival, using lemons to cover the exhibits, and huge temporary statues are built and covered with citrus fruit.

This year the theme of the Lemon Festival is:

“Menton will honour the Great Civilisations!”

Some Highlights from the official site of Fête du Citron

The Corsos des fruits d’or (Procession of Golden Fruit Floats) (on Sunday 20 and 27 February and Sunday 6 March 2011): ten animated floats decorated with citrus fruits and surrounded by attractive performers, will move along the seafront on the “Promenade du Soleil” on three Sunday afternoons. Between each float, orchestras of all kinds, folk groups and majorettes will create the atmosphere. The evening procession of floats (on Thursday 24 February and Thursday 3 March at 8.30pm) will also bring the festive spirit to the town and the crowning moment will be a big firework display over the bay.

The jardins de lumières (Gardens of Light) in the Biovès Gardens (on Friday 18 and 25 February and Friday 4 March 2011, and on Tuesday 22 February and Tuesday 1 March 2011 from 8.30 pm to 10.30 pm) will take you to an enchanted and magical world created by sound and lighting effects.

The exhibitions at the Boivès Gardens are the home of the traditional citrus statues. Two exhibitions will be hosted at the Palais de l’Europe, next to the Boivès Gardens:

• The Festival des Orchidées (Orchid Festival): The “association des Orchidophiles et Epiphytophiles de France” (French Orchid and Epiphyte Lovers Association) will present its finest specimens in an exotic and green decor with water effects.
• The Salon de l’Artisanat [Arts and Crafts Fair]: this will give visitors an opportunity to discover the traditional products that have been inspired by lemons in the Menton region: products to taste – jams, jellies, honey, liqueurs, but also to smell: soaps, perfumes (Eau de Menton). The craftsmen of Menton will also be present with their wares: wooden carvings, glass engravings, ceramics, miniature paintings, flower petal frames, etc.

Evenings shows at the Palais de l’Europe: on Saturday 19 and 26 February 2011

“Visites Fruitées” (“Fruit Visits”) are every day (apart from on Wednesdays and Sundays): with guides from the Heritage or Gardeners Department: the Palais Carnolès (Carnoles Palace), the Citronneraie, (Lemon Grove), Confiturerie (a jam factory), the Serre de la Madone (Madonna’s Greenhouse), the old town, etc. (visits only for groups, reservations are required).

A guided tour to the garden of the Palais Carnolès (Carnoles Palace) houses the biggest collection of citrus fruit in Europe: grapefruit trees, citron trees, kumquats, mandarin orange trees, clementine trees, Seville orange trees etc. The rarest varieties have been planted there, from Chinese mandarins to citron trees from Sochi.

Please remember that ALTAIR TRAVEL has its own, exclusive-unique-exceptional, deals to Europe. NOBODY can beat our prices!

We are not kidding and not fooling you, we just have our own representatives there and special contracts with the major tour operators, hotels and transfer service companies. Call us and ask!

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