Menton's annual Lemon Festival


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Europe » France » Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur » Menton
September 28th 2014
Published: September 28th 2014
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Boasting 300 sunny days per year, Menton is a small town of about 30,000 on the French Riviera right at the Italian border. Surrounded by 1200m (3800+ ft) foothills, it is shielded from snow and the frigid winds blowing off the Alps. Consequently, it has a micro-climate making it the warmest town in all France, where lemons and later other citrus fruits have been grown since the 1400s. For more information go to http://www.thegoodlifefrance.com/menton-lemon-festival-2/.

Beginning in the 1930s as a tiny imitation of the much larger Carnaval de Nice, the Lemon Festival has grown into the second most important event on the French Riviera, with over a quarter million visitors annually. There is a new theme every year: for example “The Sea”, “Transportation”, “Islands” “India”, and many others. For three weeks during Lent, the large downtown Biovès Park is transformed with dozens of enormous representations of that year’s theme, each made entirely of lemons, oranges, grapefruit and other citrus fruits artistically arranged over steel and wire mesh frameworks. They are commissioned by various cities, groups and countries, and built by professionals over a period of months. The imagination and creativity of the artists is legendary. In the process they use nearly 150 tons of citrus fruit: it’s much more than they can grow locally so some is imported from as far away as the Americas. Spoiled fruit is replaced every evening, and I was told that after the Festival what remains is made into jams to be distributed to the needy across the region.

I’m only going to show examples of some static displays in this article, but there’s much more to see as well – Sunday afternoon parades with theme-related floats, marching bands, clowns, re-enactors, gorgeous dancing girls from France and abroad, and flower shows. Next time I’ll feature the 2008 daytime parade: there is also a parade under lights at night, with fireworks. All in all, the Lemon Festival is both tasteful and fabulous !

If you get the chance to visit Menton in February or early March, by all means avail yourself of one of the transportation-plus-grandstand-seating offers available from bus companies all across the region. Don’t drive yourself – you’ll never find a parking spot.

Any of the photos below can be enlarged simply by clicking on it. After the first group of photos don’t forget to click on page 2 to see the rest.


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28th September 2014

So much creativity! I love how the leftovers are made into preserves for the locals; the smell there must have been so fresh!

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