Peregrinating Pair: Menton

Just down the coast, the last French (ish) village before Italy is Menton. The town hosts a parallel celebration to Carnaval: the Fete du Citron. Yes, the Lemon Festival. This year’s theme is Voyage to the Stars, and the lemon-based sculptures celebrated that in a variety of ways. They’re really fascinating: lots of kinetic pieces, soundscapes added into the displays, and very cleverly designed. The citrus seems to be sprayed with some kind of preservative to keep them bug-free for two weeks, and everything is held together with yellow rubber bands. I wonder if the town of Menton keeps the rubber band industry alive.

We didn’t bother with the parades, because it was clear after a little digging that most of the musical performers and dancers are the same people participating in Carnaval in Nice! It’s really quite clever – the parades occur on opposite days of the week, and the artists get full employment for the month.

Instead we admired the art, viewed a display of previous year’s themes, and checked out the indoor garden exhibit (prompting B. to remark that every place hosts a garden exposition in the Spring). We tasted some meringue delicacies, and enjoyed a tarte au citron for dessert. We admired the pedestrianized old town, liked the beachfront quite a bit (tho the wind was blowing and occasional rain spatters kept us from basking), and of course hiked up many, many stairs to the local cemetery.