Around mid October for the past seven years I’ve noticed modest hand-written little signs here and there announcing the fête de la courge in a nearby village. And for six of those seven years I’ve thought we ought to see what it was all about but the date always passed and somehow we never made it.
This year however….drumroll….we made it to the “Squash Fair”! Yes, that is what the “fête de la courge” translates as. A courge is a squash, so the fair celebrates the whole spectrum of different squashes, from gourdes to enormous marrows taking in a lot of big fat orange pumpkins. Let’s take a look at this autumn pumpkin fair.
In its tenth year this year, the fête is the biggest autumn fair in the locality, attracting some ten thousand visitors and involving two tonnes of pumpkins and 1000 litres of soup!
Amongst the stalls selling all manner of things orange were pumpkin carving workshops and face-painting for children. The setting is hard to beat – the pretty medieval village of Châteauneuf-de-Grasse – and my whole family, including grandparents, enjoyed an original and slightly amusing Sunday morning out.
We bought a great big pumpkin to carve for Halloween and best of all, a bag of ready-chopped butternut squash chunks from a green-haired lady with an orange mini moke!
I’ll leave you with some photos – all very orange!
You can find out more about the fête de la courge here (updated annually around September/October). Do you enjoy going to seasonal fairs like this? Does your area have anything similar?
Related Reading:
Transhumance, Autumn and a hill-top village
Orange Festival on the French Riviera – la fête de l’oranger
Medieval festival – Knights Templar on the Côte d’Azur
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Where did you go in France? I’m delighted you found me and hope you enjoy my other posts throughout the winter!
It was a lot of fun! Thanks for popping by.
Thanks Margaret 😀
Thanks Linda, I hope you enjoy my posts about life in France and maybe get here one day.
Thanks!
Yes, I made a roast pumpkin risotto 🙂
They’re impressively huge, aren’t they!
Hi Michelle, pumpkins aren’t so popular all over France, we’re just lucky to be close to a very unique fair.
Loved your post! (Found you through ‘blog formatting’ comment weekend and glad I did – hopeflly your posts from France will keep me going all winter!)
Just back from France. Had to leave before out village had their fete. Fantastic display in the nearest town’s spermarket though.
Love your photos!
O my goodness what fun does that look like! I would love to visit there. Glad you made it and had fun!
Fall is one of my favorite times of year. Your pictures are amazing. Of course, being a travel addict, I now want to visit this city and take some of my own photos. But since I won’t be making it there anytime soon, I’m going to live vicariously through you.
Found you at BlogFormatting. Happy Friday to you. http://outoneear.com
What beautiful pictures!!! Very interesting – it looked like an enjoyable day!
Such fun phoebe. Have you used your peeled and cut butternut squash?
Holy huge pumpkin!!! I don’t know that I’ve ever seen pumpkins big enough to sit in! I also LOVE the hollowed out gourds with the tiny cacti in them. Fabulous! Thanks for sharing the pictures!
oh my goodness, that looks utterly amazing. What a fab thing to have.
Wow – that just look awesome – I would love to be able to go to something like that! I wish people embraced pumpkins more in the UK!
Thanks Remy, it was a very photogenic fair!
These pictures are awesome! I love fall season. 😉