Lemon knot

In southeastern France, on the Cote d 'Azur near the Italian border, there is an unremarkable town that is famous for a fruit and a festival. It is called Menton, the land of lemons.

Menton is the famous "city of art and history", 30km from Nice, 10km from Monaco, is the first Italian town along the Mediterranean into France. The excellent geographical location, the reputation of the "land of lemons", the long history and culture make this town attract millions of tourists to visit every year.

Speaking of Menton's lemons, there is a beautiful legend: Eve and Adam were driven out of the Garden of Eden, taking with them a golden fruit - the lemon.

After crossing mountains, valleys and plains, they came to the bay of Menton, where the mild climate and dense vegetation reminded them of the sweetness of the Garden of Eden, and there they buried the lemons.

The Lemon Festival stems from France's unique carnival culture and a citrus fruit show. Menton has a perfect climate with more than 300 sunny days a year, becoming a winter resort for European celebrities and nobles.

In 1875, the Menton government orchestrated the first Menton Carnival parade. Magic, acrobatics, floats, fireworks and other performances, so that the success of the Menton Carnival became a major trend at that time, day and night will have colorful activities, of which the most famous four activities are: citrus theme exhibition, light garden, golden fruit parade, night parade.

This is an art festival of citrus fruits. The theme exhibition uses thousands of citrus fruits such as lemons, grapefruits and oranges as raw materials. Through the artistic treatment of large wire frame structure, it forms a dazzling sculpture with the theme color, which is very shocking.

It is said that the sculptures in the citrus theme exhibition, even if there are more than 300 professionals, will probably require thousands of hours of creation and processing.

If during the day, these citrus sculptures are praised for their exquisite, silk and sewing, the citrus sculptures that are lit up at night seem to wear a magical "coat" : under the action of alternating light and shade, they change different "new clothes", emitting a magical and charming atmosphere, and make the whole biological garden look new.

Between 9 p.m. and 10:15 p.m., the anticipated "carnival" will begin when floats carrying brass bands, orchestras, folk groups, dancers and other artists begin to parade along the Sorel Promenade in Menton. You can feel the passion of the people of Menton for art, and you can enjoy the vibrant, passionate street music.

The lemons and oranges Menton grows are called Fruits d'or (golden fruit). Every Sunday afternoon during the Lemon Festival, colorful citrus fruit sculptures are paraded along the waterfront promenade, accompanied by entertainers, orchestras and civic groups.

From the theme of the Lemon Festival, we can see that the French Menton Lemon Festival is a veritable international festival, and its theme is very inclusive and international.

The southern French town of Menton | a lemon lover's paradise 🍋

💛💛💛 Menton, a sunny lemon town. Located at the border of France and Italy, the terrain depends on the mountains and faces the sea, and has the laudable name of "the pearl of France".

This trip to Nice, France was also lucky, because after buying the ticket we knew that the days we went to coincided with the Nice Carnival 🎉 and Menton Lemon Festival 🍋

❣️ Play Tips:
🤍 There is a direct train from Nice to Menton, which costs around €6 and takes 36 minutes.

🍋 The outdoor lemon-orange art exhibition tour time is about 1 hour, there are some handicrafts made of lemons, lemon juice, lemon soap and so on... buy at discretion

In addition to the above three activities, Menton also launched some workshops, such as picking lemons, visiting lemon orchards, etc. Tickets for various activities can be bought on their guan website 🎫