Menton's Lemon Festival Parade

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The Lemon Festival goes on for three weeks in February and early March, and every Sunday afternoon there is a parade or “corso” to use the local name. On the Thursday of the final week there is also a night-time parade. What sort of parades are they? … in recent years a number of the sponsors who create static displays like those shown in my previous article have also commissioned floats using the same principles of construction. Each float weighs between three and four tonnes, because of their steel and mesh frameworks, riders, and the sheer weight of the citrus fruit. I was able to attend a 2008 afternoon parade, which also featured clowns, mediaeval re-enactors, dancing girls and marching bands from around the world: it lasted about an hour and forty minutes.

For an excellent presentation of displays, floats and both afternoon and evening parades from previous years, go to http://www.portail-menton.com/menton-corso-fete-citron-en.php . Don’t be daunted at the name: the site is in English, and anyway the pictures speak for themselves.

1980 marked the first time that the Menton Citrus Festival attracted more than 100,000 visitors. The number has steadily increased, and now every year about a quarter million attend. Its attendance will likely never match that of the much larger Carnaval de Nice, but it has now surpassed the Grand Prix de Monaco as the year’s second most important tourist attraction on the French Riviera.

To enlarge any of the photos for closer viewing, just click on it.

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