Sunday, May 15, 2011

"La Transhumance" - Fête Provençale in Jonquières


What a fantastic Sunday in Provence - we had for some time heard tales of "La Transhumance" when shepherds bring their livestock to higher pastures in the summer or to lower valleys in winter. So when we saw a little sign at a roundabout last week that this weekend the sheep would be traversing the village of Jonquières we made sure to be there on time! And what a village fête it turned out to be! Marching bands, Provençal dancers wearing their historic costumes, food stalls selling everything from freshly picked cherries, sausages, honey, tapenades or homemade pies and tarts, craftsmen making brooms or roasting coffee like their grandparents used to. Not even the Mistral, the dreaded wind from the north spoiled the fun although the stallholders had to hold onto their stalls to protect them against the fierce gusts.

"La Transhumance" - there were easily more than a thousand sheep and my OH
was very pleased that they all wore his initials!

An especially proud specimen

Little Provençal beauties

Proudly wearing local costumes

Sun Protection à la Provençale

La Transhumance as Santons for the Christmas Crèche

No Village Fête without a Dance Group

What a clever idea: this lady used her car....

...to display her handmade Fridge Magnets

Cheeses from Banon

A Veggie's Dream: Tarte Paysanne

A Broom Maker shows his Craft

Roasting Coffee like our grandparents used to

7 comments:

  1. We would have so enjoyed seeing this. Thank you for sharing. No doubt, we will see many other special things on our trip.

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  2. What a treat to happen upon such an event. I love it when that happens.

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  3. Oh Barbara, how I would love to attend an event like this!! Great pics esp the sun protection one!! We are planning a trip to Provence in Sept. I will email you the dates as I would love to meet up if poss!
    Claudia

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  4. Hallo Barbara,

    Très jolies photos, il va falloir commencer la collection des aimants pour Lola ;-)

    Benoît

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  5. Wow, what fun! I had heard about the transhumance and fete in Saint Rémy de Provence on Pentecost Monday but not about the one in Jonquieres. Going to see the transhumance and associated fete has been on my list and I hope to be in Provence in May next year so we can see this great movement of sheep. Thanks so much for sharing your pictures and experience.

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  6. Thank you for this slice of Provence Barbara.

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  7. Great photos about "La Transhumance" Just let you know to you and your readers than at the end of october is possible live "La trasumancia" in Madrid (Spain). Madrid is the only european capital that still with the transhumance tradition.

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