Sunday, August 4, 2013

Medieval Festival in Chateauneuf-du-Pape

We are big fans of all the village fêtes here in Provence. But until recently we had never heard of the "Fête de la Véraison" that has been celebrated  in Chateauneuf-du-Pape for almost 30 years now. Véraison means ripening and denotes the moments when the color of the grapes turns from green to purple. To celebrate this Chateauneuf, probably the most prestigious wine village in Provence, turns into a medieval village complete with knights and damsels, court jesters, shepherds and the plague ridden poor.
But this wouldn't be a proper village fête if you could not also find all kinds of culinary sustenance. We came home having not only tasted the wines of Chateauneuf but with wonderful breads, fresh garlic, onions and shallots, the best because almost non sugary candied fruit we have ever tasted. And truly happy to have shared this very special, joyful festival. 









 
Truly delicious - our  medieval picknick


8 comments:

  1. oh how I love the look of this, Barbara - what fun. and yr yummy picnick!Mmmm. We are back home now and looking forward to going down to Assos - will you be visiting Turkey in the near future?

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  2. i would love to atend something like this! great picnic fare!

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  3. I love the festivals too and we have been able to way too few. Hopefully, we will be spending more time there during the summers and we will get to more of them. For now, I get to enjoy them through your blog. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Wov, this looks like the real deal, what fun!:)

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  5. Fantastic pictures, makes me feel like I was there. Thank you for sharing, it looked like so much fun

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  6. Oh wow! Whatever deliciousness you are eating for your picnic, I want some now! It looks fantastic. I love medieval festivals so much as there always seems to be some much color, activity, and a wide selection of delicious foods.

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  7. When I lived in Italy we had such exuberant events quite often. We loved them as children; and the adults seemed to have a lot of energy and fun as well.

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