January and February festivals

Chandeleur , Fat Tuesday & Bouffets


On Chandeleur (Candlemas) on February 2nd, , and on Shrovetide (Fat Tuesday), the day before the Lent period starts (40 days of fasting ending with Good Friday), French eat ‘crepes’ (very thin & wide pancakes). There are contests for throwing up the crepes into the air and catch it back in the frying pan. Crepe parties are another opportunity to have fun with relatives and/or friends. In Provence we rather have Ganses (fried cakes in the shape of knots) rather than crepes.

End of February, on ashes day at night, the «Boufetaires», young men, dressed with long white gowns, with bells at their ankles, and ashes on their fronts dance on one foot or the other, following each other, holding bellows, making figures and singing bawdy songs in Provencal.
     Sian uno bando de bravo juventuro
     Qu’aven un fuec que nous brulo
     Se sian imagina, per se lou fa passa
     De prendre de boufet, au cuou de se boufa

They blow in the ass of the guy ahead of them with their bellows. From time to time they fill in their bellows with flour and chase girls to blow under their skirt or at the face of people around.

They ring at doors and people must give them cookies. Then they walk proudly to another part of the city and start again their crazy dance.

The dances are symbolic of nature mood swings. The dance on one foot is to show that the peasants are beating the earth in order it gives them good products. The bellows symbolize the force of the nature which is still asleep.

Mimosa and Carnival festivals


January/February is the blossom season for mimosa and the Tanneron mountain (west of Grasse) turns entirely yellow. This is the main agricultural revenue for this area. Mandelieu, Valbonne and Pegomas hold a mimosa festival. Floats are decorated with this gorgeous and sweet-smelling flower. At the end of the parade, all the flowers are given away, so the people go home with their arms full of flowers, mainly mimosa of course but also roses, carnations, iris … and they decorate their home with these wonderfully smelling flowers.

Of course this goes along traditional folk dances and music.

February/March is the season for the famous Carnival in Nice and the lemon festival in Menton.
During the Carnival, there are different types of floats parades, flower battles and ‘charivari’ where everybody does crazy things.

During the lemon festival in Menton, there are floats decorated with lemons and oranges but also great statues made of these citrus fruits in beautiful parks in Menton.