Repères méditerranéens

 

The almost sub-tropical Mediterranean climate which predominates at Menton is particularly favourable to growing citrus fruits. Now symbols of the town, the lemons of Menton have become famous throughout the world, even though today there are very few lemon groves left. This fame has created a legend – that when Eve was expelled from Paradise, she grabbed a lemon which she hid in her hands. When she arrived at Menton she buried the lemon, saying "It's  here, in this dream Paradise that I redsicover our Paradise."

Every year since 1875, during Mardi Gras (Shrove Tuesday), Menton spends a fortnight celebrating the "Festival of Golden Fruits". Now "traditional", the Lemon Festival is, to a certain extent, an adaptation of the Carnival. In fact, in order to amuse and occupy the leisure time of their wealthy clientele who came from all over Europe to spend the winter on the Riviera, Menton's hoteliers decided to create an entertainment, like other towns along the coast, of which the best example was their neighbour Nice. So in 1876 they organised the first festival – it was a huge success. Then in February 1929, to try to halt the decline in the number of tourists, a hotel-owner decided to organise an exhibition of flowers and citrus fruits in the gardens of the Hotel Riviera. That was an immediate success as well and he did the same thing the following year. In 1934 the organisers decided to dedicate the festival to the lemon and call it "The Menton Carnival" or "The Carnival of the Golden Fruits". Later that became "The Festival of Lemons". Despite a forced interruption between 1940 and 1945, the Festival's reputation has grown constantly: in 1980 there were 50,000 visitors, ten years later that had quadrupled to 200,000 visitors from all over the world.

 

Usually preparations for the Festival begin the preceding September. As the beginning of the festival approaches (mid-February), dozens of employees from the Services des espaces verts attach the lemons one by one to wire netting. With the help of 500,000 elastic bands and 120 tons of citrus fruit, they create enormous animals, buildings and other fantastastical objects. Before 1965 the lemons were speared on to steel spikes, but this tended to make them rot rapidly. Out of 120 tons of fruit used for the festival, only 80 actually come from the Menton area, the rest are imported from Valencia in Spain, twinned with Menton. Once the festival is over not all the fruit is thrown away. Those still in good condition are sold in bulk for a very reasonable price, the rest are used to make vin d'orange or vin de citron.

 

Bibliography:

Franck Ricordel, Menton et la fête du citron, Nice, Serre, 1993.