Sunday, August 29, 2010

Garlic Festival in Piolenc


The Garlic Festival in Piolenc is one of the nicest food festivals in Provence. A true village affair it centers around a beautiful market and starts with a mass that is held in the Provençal dialect. Then the Confrerie de l'Ail (loosely translated: the Club of the Garlic Brothers) leads a procession of carnival floats through the village. Today even Christian Etienne  a very well known French chef came to Piolenc and held a cooking demonstration. If you are in Avignon and feel really flush go to his restaurant right next to the Pope's Palace. But do have a look at the prices first!  And since pictures talk more than a thousand words, have a look at the ones I took this morning.


One of the carnival floats

Obélix was there, too 

Marinated Garlic

Garlic made pretty

Nice Price - 3 Euros per Kilo

Flavors of Provence

Cooks with Garlic: Chef Christian Etienne


7 comments:

  1. Oh my!! I think I smell that beautiful smell way over here, across the ocean. Thanks for sharing. We will be in Provence next June!!!

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  2. Susan, in June you'll sadly miss this lovely festival but the fresh pink garlic will already be there and IMO that one is the best!

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  3. I wish we could have been there for the garlic festival. I did venture past Christian Etienne's restaurant but didn't go in. I am sure at some point we will. We arrive next weekend and look forward to exploring new villages and trying new restaurants.

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  4. Michel,
    so you'll arrive just in time for the marché artisanal in Sablet on Saturday!

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  5. Just found your blog, thanks to Keef at a taste of garlic, I'm looking forward to working my way through your recipes.
    My blog is here http://rozinbrittany.blogspot.com/
    and you can find my recipes on there or as a separate blog here; http://halfacrefarmfr.blogspot.com/

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  6. Rosalyn - welcome to Cuisine de Provence, I hope you enjoy the recipes.

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  7. What a lovely blog! I live very close to Gilroy, California-- they call themselves the garlic capitol of the world. I don't know about that, except that I use fresh garlic all the time. Love it!

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