France in August - Fetes and festivals

Town-based sons and daughters return to their rural roots for the holidays and to party

The twentieth century saw mass migrations of people from the countryside to the cities. Each August those prodigal sons and daughters return to their rural roots, to the village where the family still has a house.

It’s then that the locals have their fête. Many are simply a weekend of merry-making, eating and dancing.

Others have a theme, often based around regional produce, like Castelnaudary which celebrates the Fête du Cassoulet. It’s really a winter warmer but 30,000 or more portions will disappear during a week-long binge at the end of August.

Some include spectacles, funfairs or a circus

Photo: An airshow at Domme, near Sarlat

With the fêtes come that French specialty, markets. Whilst towns and villages throughout the country have them every week, markets take on a new dimension in August.

The number and variety of stalls can easily double with the fine weather and summer visitors. There’ll be local produce, cheeses, charcuterie, wines and artisan-produced olive oil which tastes nothing like the lubricant offered by your local supermarket.

Photo: The fête de Gruissan

Photo: Olives, more olives in the market at Gruissan

August is festival time. Wherever you’re staying, there’ll be one near you.

Many are of the music variety – jazz, folk, rock, latin, blues and classical. Some of them are world class. Jazz at Marciac rivals the festivals at Newport or Monterey. Carcassonne attracts international chart performers; this year included James Blunt, Moby and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Photo: Music festivals attract World class artists, like Moby at Carcassonne

Other festivals are a based around the arts - film, painting or photography. At Arles, the Rencontres photography festival has 47 exhibitions from around the World. Perpignan’s international photojournalism event, Visa pour Image, hosts exhibitors and visitors from Japan to the United States.

Need an antidote to too much relaxing around the pool? Time for something a little more physical and adventurous perhaps - as in rambling, hill walking, kayaking, canoeing, canyoning and horse riding. Age is no barrier to young or old when in the hands of a professional.

Photo: Their first kayak lesson started 20 minutes ago...

Guides have to be trained and licensed. Early in their training, they learn the guide’s prime directive - never lose a customer. A good accompagnateur likes to finish the day with the same number of clients that he had at the beginning. Losing a few along the way is considered bad manners.

So if it’s your first time on a horse, he’ll not be putting you up on old Thunder the widow-maker. Nor will you doing a Pocahontas over the falls ten minutes after setting foot in your first canoe.

Photo: ...and now they're experts

But you’ll be surprised what you can do after a very short time and these things offer a new view of France. The countryside holds abundant wildlife which is wary of people but not canoes or horses. You risk seeing more kingfishers than you can shake a stick at while simply drifting with the current.

This is the most visited country on the planet. If it’s the mind that needs exercising, It has 450,000 years of cultural history if we start with the remains of Tautavel Man, an ancestor of our Neanderthal forebears.

Our oldest art gallery, the cave paintings at Lascaux in the Dordogne, is a mere 19,000 years old.

What have the Romans ever done for us? Well, there’s the 2,000 year old aquaduct, Pont du Gard, the amphitheatre at Arles, founded the vineyards...
Unesco lists 35 World Heritage Sites in France from the Palais de Versailles to Brittany’s Mont St Michel.

Photo: A Unesco World Heritage Site - the Cité de Carcassonne...

Finally, there’s the food and the wine. Summer brings an unrivalled choice of restaurants from humble cafés to Michelin 3 Stars. It's why you came.

Photo:.. and inside, wall to wall restaurants

Related links :

• http://www.eau-rizon.org/eau-rizon.html