Menton is the last town in France before the Italian border. It is very famous for it's boardwalk, beaches, mild climate and lemons and oranges. All kinds of oranges - clementines, mandarin oranges, blood oranges, bitter oranges, kumquats, and stuff I don't even know what the heck they are, as well as different kinds of lemons, and something called "cedrats", which are lemons as well (maybe?) Grapefruits and avocados are also on the menu.
Every year during Carnival, Menton offers up its own version of Carnival called the Fete du Citron. It consists of parades of floats made entirely out of lemons and oranges, plus huge gardens full of sculptures and displays made of....lemons and oranges.
7 years here and I had never been. Off we went on the train today with my friend Chantal and her 2 granddaughters.
Here are some photos. The whole experience made me feel like it was either Thanksgiving or New Year's Day and I was at the Rose Bowl or something - all thoses frigid holidays growing up in Vermont where you're sitting knee deep in snow watching TV specials where anchormen and women present those parades in parts of the USA I have never been to in my life- Florida and California. It had that whole feel to it - Tropicana, retired people, the early bird special.
This year's theme was "Islands of the World". Some of these "sculptures" are 10 meters high, and have up to 15 tons of citrus fruit on them.
This first photo is supposed to be a fishing boat on Tahiti. There were also enormous replicas of the famous big head statues on Easter Island but they were terrifying towers of citrus and Estelle was scared of them so no photos.
This is supposed to be a volcano in Sicily.
This is a pirate ship on the "Fantasy Island" for kids.
Orange trees:
More Sicily
Estelle in front of a wild boar ("sanglier" in French) that was part of the enormous Corsica spot. At least the boar wasn't made out of lemons.
This enormous turtle had a head that moved. He was very interesting to Estelle. Hiding behind him are the aforementioned terrifying Easter Island statues.
More turtle
For a solid 5 minutes, Estelle talked to the lemons. She kept leaning over and hollering "COUCOU LES CITRONS!". Loosely translated, this means "Hey there lemons!" This became a source of much entertainment for all the passers-by, and she got filmed and photographed by many a festival-goer, as she stood there bent over, squealing at a bed of lemons.
These last 2 photos show her glee about conversing with the lemons. She even put her hand to her ear as if they were responding to her. Maybe they were?
There was another part of the festival that was inside - and all ORCHIDS. Every orchid that exists in the world was in this expo. Since I kill every plant I own, I was sort of like "ok, moving on." But my friends were dazzled.
8 comments:
Wayne wants to know how they get all those oranges and lemons to stick on to the sculptures. Estelle must have been awestruck and curious. She looks like she's having a great time.
D,W,W,C,H
What an interesting festival! I second Wayne's question...are they GLUED together? WIRED? Hmmmmm...maybe we'll never know!
~Sandy
Cute pictures of Estelle in her pink jacket. The oranges and lemons were something to see.
Yikes, it must be chilly over there, to see Estelle in a winter-looking jacket, hat and mittens!
I loved seeing all the citrus, and it did make me think of Rose Parades and such. LOL over Estelle conversing with the citus...and you got it captured in the photos. Sounds like a lovely day!!!
Rubber bands, Wayne. Believe it or not, rubber bands! Thick ones, like what is around a bunch of asparagus or brocolli in the USA. Orange ones on the oranges, and yellow ones on the lemons. The bands are what hold the fruit on the frame of each sculpture.
Dan reminded me that if you click on the picture, you can see it larger, and you can actually see the rubber bands. I can't believe it. It seems like even more work than skewering them on or something, which is what we figured they must do. Now I have even more respect for their work and creativity.
Darlene
Estelle looks so cute in the last two pictures, what a doll baby! She looks like she had a blast!
Hello from the sunshine state! This blog reminds me of our very own Orlando CITRUS BOWL PARADE which we attend every year! Area youth work feverishly on the days and nights before the parade to bind and attach all of the citrus to the chicken wire structures with color coordinated rubber bands. THe parade is lots of fun, and usually a hot December morning. And, the excitement builds in anticipation of the Citrus Bowl game on January 1st. I am loving seeing Estelle, and hope to see her again in person.
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