Wall of Lemons
photo by Paul Downey

Understand

The Lemon Festival (or Fête du Citron® in French) usually takes place between mid-February until March, in Menton, a place in Alpes-Maritimes, situated in the beautiful area of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France. The lemon has become Menton's symbol, routed in old local traditions with the new motto "My City is a Garden"

This is one of the largest festivals in the South of France (after the Carnival of Nice), attracting over 250,000 visitors and well, just 145 tonnes of lemons and oranges.

The festival has almost always been themed, starting up with the cartoon world in the 90's: Disney, or Tin Tin, Pinocchio and moving onto the countries of the world in 2005. Spain took the debut theme, followed by Brazil and India. In 2010 the theme is centred around world music, as if the amazing colours were not enough for a spectacle.

Citrus, citrus? Just for the record... there are tens of types of flavoursome and fragrant citrus fruits: oranges, lemons, pomelo, grapefruit, limes, orangelo, tangelo, tangerines, clemenvillas, clementines, etrog, blood orange, kaffir limes, mandarines, mineolas, kumquat. Know more? There are tens more types of citric fruities.

See

The Lemon festival is organised into a several "sessions", one more entertaining than the other:

The Parade of Golden Fruit

The "Promenade du soleil" multi-color festival explodes with people, tangerines and orangines, lemons and smiles on a Sunday, when lots of cars and people parade towards the sea. Children love this! Fanfares, Drums, Costumes and sparkles abound in the streets, confetti sprinkling above, happy faces everywhere.

Moonlit Parade

The french say that the fruits of the sun have a date with the moon… How cool is that as a Valentine smooch?

As the night falls on the small beautiful city, the calm is just the preparation for the incandescent party that is to follow. Fireworks and celebrations galore, this is a celebration of the sun, with everyone "dancing in the moonlight".

The citrus "World Tour"

You can travel virtually all corners of the world in citrus flavour, at the The jardins Biovès.

Gardens of Light

After 8pm or so, beautiful displays of light and citrus fruits emerge at Jardins Biovès, creating a fairytale filled with wonder, colours, sounds and light.

Getting there

By Air

Fly to Nice (lots of flights go there daily), then hire a car. Menton is a short drive away.

By Train

You can get to Menton by train relatively easily - there are 2 SNCF stations: Menton (about 200m near Jardins Biovès) and Menton Garavan, roughly 1km from the border with Italy.

Parking

Public transport is recommended whist in town as it can get a little busy, but should you need parking there are plenty of options around in public car parks.

Motor homes, Caravans and the likes :-)

Saint Michel Municipal Campground offers several parking spaces, along with the football ground near Koaland.

Sleep

There are plenty of options to choose from: over 35 quality hotels in town, St Michel Campsite, several holiday homes, apart-hotels, 1 youth hotel and a few B&Bs.

Contact

Telephone: : +33 (0)4 92 41 76 76 Official Website: www.tourisme-menton.fr Email address: tourisme@menton.fr

Booking and ticket Office Telephone : 04.92.41.76.95

Contact & location

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The photos displayed on this page are the property of one of the following authors:

Paul Downey, Eljay

Some photos courtesy of: . The photos provided by Flickr are under the copyright of their owners.

This travel guide also includes text from Wikitravel articles, all available at WikitravelView full credits

This travel guide also includes text from Wikipedia articles, all available at WikipediaView full credits

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