A violet festival -- the fête

Now that you've visited the village and seen the parade, I thought I'd show you how the festival in general looked.  I've tried to capture the general ambiance of the event for you, including the village, the crowd, the market, and hopefully the French twist making it stand out from similar events elsewhere. 

As I mentioned before, we met up with our old Paris neighbors and friends, down south for a couple of months, which made the day quite interesting for us.

Taking the shuttle

Proud of their heritage

First, there was no parking in the village available, as you might imagine.  So we started off catching one of the many shuttles they ran throughout the day. 

Once we got to the village, we were welcomed with a large flower banner over a local market.

We found a large crowd already formed in front of the old laundry area, where the ancients gathered to wash their belongings in a group water source, as well as in the covered bus stop.

Not waiting for a bus

Not doing the wash

The crowd also spilled out all around the main church, both in front and around the side.

Milling around the church . . .

. . . waiting for the parade

In the center of the town square, many vendor stalls were set up.  I took a little tour around to capture the various violet products and ambiance for you.

The bakery likes to party, too . . .

. . . and makes a pretty window display

How about some violet jam

Or perhaps some syrup or liqueur

Besides various purple products for sale, there were other regional products available.

Don't wait for the Battle

Provençal-style olives, garlic, lemons

I really enjoyed these carved gourds, containing cactus gardens and Provençal villages.

So pretty

So charming

And then, there were the various flower displays, which I found nicely put together.

Parade grandstand for the celebs

Passing through the clock tower

Lady with basket

Despite the crowd, we were able to find our friends, who were in their typical spot in front of the church, in prime position to watch the parade as it passed by.  (Extra points for correctly guessing where he got his Dodger baseball cap!)

Catching up with old friends

Waiting for the parade

After the Battle of the Flowers, a number of households were going to have pretty bouquets gracing their tables or shelves.  The fact that one could easily cut a mimosa branch from all over the countryside didn't seem to be important here -- much more fun to reach out and grab one away from the next person!

Am I a vase?

A triumphal battle

I got mine!

Even my friend managed to get her own collection, as usual.  As I missed out by taking pictures for you, she gave me the little bouquet she was gifted by the vendor when she bought a collection of organic lemons to make her annual lemon wine.

Filled my sack!

Finding good lemons for wine

Old friends in the old village

Before we left, we stopped into the local café for our annual hot chocolate.  That makes a really nice ending of a lovely day with old friends for me.  On the way to our shuttle to get back to our car, I came across the police woman I'd seen earlier walking through the crowds with her own bouquet of battle flowers!  By this point, she'd lost the violets stuck in her pocket, which was even more doubly funny.

A quaint spot for imbibing

Even the Gendarmes win battles

My own pretty table

I hope you've enjoyed this fun little French violet festival in my backyard.  Come visit me sometime at this time of year, and you can participate yourself! 

My friend ended up giving me a few of her battle flowers, which I put into my Delft tulip vase from a long ago visit to Holland.  A win win for me. 

Until next year's fête . . .