The city of Citrus, Menton, France….

Hello dear readers, it’s citrus season! A friend dropped off a box of Meyers Lemons that she grew me this morning which I am going to preserve for future Tagines and other dishes {yes, you can grow citrus fruit in the PNW!}. As I was searching though the blog to recall recipes and methods I’ve used to preserve citrus fruits in the past {see them at the bottom} I came across this post on the Citrus Festival in Menton.

Mon Dieu! I miss being in France SO much, But this post brought back many happy memories and plenty of hope that I will be able to visit this beautiful city again soon, so I thought you may enjoy a virtual visit to the South of France as well. Hoping you are all well and making the most of this most unusual time.

Bon Dimanche, splendid readers…. as you may have gathered from my recent Instagram shots over there ->->

I am actually back in France right now at our Pied~de~Eze {bord~du~mer}.

The original idea was to come for the month of March to immerse myself in the beautiful language of this country at L’institut de Français. But, as I started piecing together a few things on the calendar, it became delightfully apparent that it actually made more sense for me to stay here for 2 months!

Continuing on with the citrus theme, my first Sunday here, I decided to explore the beautiful seaside village of Menton, where all of the streets are lined with orange trees that are loaded with fruit this time of year.

Because of other things on my agenda, Mardi Gras in New Orleans with my daughter and skiing the Sella Ronda with Mr. Splendid in the Dolomites I wasn’t able to attend the Fête du Citron celebration this year. But, I thought, why not take the train to Menton, walk that gorgeous coastline and see if I can catch any remaining views of the magnificence of Le Fête du Citron?

This is the time of year when citrus fruits are at their peak of ripeness and the gardens and streets of Menton are overrunning with these bright colored orbs, more than can be consumed, most likely, so, why not make art from them??

During the festival, the trees are upstaged by massive hand made sculptures using tons of oranges and lemons.

As it turned out, I was in luck, there were some remnants from the 86th annual Fête du Citron with the theme “Des Mondes Fantastiques” or Fantastic Worlds. I can only imagine how impressive this castle must have looked all lit up at night during the celebration.

Even though I could only see the parts above the wall, I loved the drama of these massive, curved, bright and tangy creations in contrast to the classic Belle Epoque buildings that line the street.

Also, just in case you’re feeling some creative inspiration to DIY a citrus sculpture in your back yard sometime soon, I learned a little tip on how they make these. The fruits are attached to the massive structures with color coordinated rubber bands {this year they used 750,000 “elastics”}. I always wondered how they did this, since piercing the fruit would cause them to deteriorate more quickly. Fifteen tons of metal was used to make the steel framework surrounded in chicken wire.

Despite the fact that 14 tons of citrus was used to make these colorful works of art this year, there was still plenty of fresh, ripe fruit to be found in all of the shops and markets, and it was {is} delicious!