The Lemon Festival of Menton | EUROtoday

Carol finds February glows in Menton, the place the Lemon Festival banishes winter blues…

There is a little bit of a boring patch after Christmas when the fun and camaraderie of welcoming within the New Year are behind us. Even in one of many sunniest and bluest-sky locations in Europe, February may be dare I say it? -a colourful month.

Historically, it’s the wettest month of the 12 months alongside the Côte d’Azur. We do have the almond timber in heavenly-scented pink blossom and we now have our lemons and oranges to brighten up the land. Our breakfast vitamin C is assured due to the fats and super-juicy consuming oranges we planted a couple of years again. Tangerines and clementines, too, although they appear to be gradual growers, the fruits barely greater than our olives!

If we want an additional injection of winter’s golden fruits, there may be the Fête du Citron in Menton, near the Italian border. Menton has the mildest local weather alongside this shoreline. Sub-tropical with particularly good air, it was in previous occasions a well being resort for these affected by bronchial diseases and lung ailments. Robert Louis Stevenson and Katherine Mansfield had been however two famend writers who wintered in Menton.

MENTON’S GOLDEN TOUCH

Today, 200,000 guests arrive every February to have a good time Menton’s Lemon Festival, which in 2019 was awarded Intangible Cultural Heritage standing by the French Ministry of Culture. This 12 months it begins on Valentine’s Day and can celebration by to March 1. The theme will likely be Wonders of Life, which strikes me as a much-needed philosophy proper now. If you have not stayed on this fairly, hilly seaside city, that is the second.

The competition is a sensationally uplifting and fairly loopy expertise: brass bands, thongs of individuals dancing within the streets, plentiful floats, glorious meals and oodles of it. If you’ll be able to’t bear to depart and are nonetheless in Menton because the celebration is winding down, hold a watch out for the sale of the 140 tons of fruits used for the floats. Citrus fruits loads may be bought by Mentonnais residents and vacationers alike..

While you might be filling up your suitcase, go away house for a jar or two of grasp jam maker Maison Herbin’s citron-flavored jams. These jams will add zest to your toast. Never tasted Menton lemon ravioli, an artisanal specialty? Well, as they are saying, you have not lived. You may additionally end up a pint of the distinctive Menton lemon beer. Personally, I favor a shot of citronella as an aperitif.

MORE REASONS TO LINGER

There can also be a fabulous Orchid Show to see and the Winter Garden to go to earlier than you fly off. Nothing to do with the floats and Golden Fruit Parade however whereas on the town, do slip into the Jean Cocteau Museum. Housed in Le Bastion down on the port, it’s an inspiring tribute to a genius, an artist who cherished the south of France and has left us a number of examples of his work all alongside the coast. Perhaps we should always create the Jean Cocteau Route! So, that has cheered up February and acquired us dancing by to March. The days are getting longer now. My spirits are rising. I’m getting ready the define for a brand new novel, however earlier than I chain myself to my desk, that is the season for nature blossoming, for panorama, for unique gardens. The climate is form, strolling shouldn’t be a sizzling hassle and the beautiful arrays of flowers will knock you lifeless. When you reside within the south of France, there isn’t a boring month.

Carol Drinkwater is an award-winning actress and creator. Her newest novel is One Summer in Provence.

From France Today Magazine

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