Cycling through France in Autumn you see a lot of falling fruit
and rustling leaves but every now and then you see something truly
surprising. Like the small village of Saint-Caprais who celebrate la fête de la
châtaigne (the festival of the chestnut) every year on the
second Saturday of October. It's in its 22nd year now
and seems to be a time for the the locals to come out of their
sleepy shells and demonstrate their nutty tendancies. Here's five
things I was surprised to see in a small French village on a
Saturday afternoon:
1. A brioche the size of a Jacuzzi:
La brioche is a French delicacy that is known as the
crème de la crème of sweet, moist and airy French bread.
It requires similar preparation and baking to bread and is one of
those super foods that can be happily eaten for breakfast, lunch or
dinner. (My personal preference is dunking a big hunk of it in a
cup of coffee.) To give you an indication of the calorie count,
there's a French slang expression, "avoir (un peu) de
brioche", which literally translates as "to have
brioche", which means "to be a bit fat/to have a
belly". I still haven't worked out how the frenchies stay so
thin with all this incredible food around?
2. Child labour and pressed apple juice:
This festival is more than nutty, it's a full-blown celebration of
the old traditions of rural France. One of the exhibitors was a
family with an apple orchid and they had loaded the last of the
summer fruit into a giant barrel and the kids were winding the
crank to produce freshly pressed apple juice right there on the
spot for you. It comes out as a muddy, thick brown liquid but the
taste was sweeter and richer than anything I've tried before. For
each sip it's like you've eaten an entire apple.
3. A cordier demonstrating how to make
rope:
When I first arrived I saw a crowd of people gathered around a
local man who was performing the old art of rope-making by hand.
With his black beret draped casually across his tanned, bald head
he plaited and wound the fibres together, winding up with an
ingeniously simple and strong length of rope. At the end of his
demonstration he awarded the piece of rope to one of the child
helpers who accepted it with honour and pride, running to show his
mother - bringing much more happiness than a macdonalds happy meal
toy ever could.
4. Rubbing shoulders with the rich (in culture) and
famous:
News of my cycling adventure had spread and I was surprised to be
greeted by Mireille Figeac, the Lord Mayor of Gindou, a bright and
sprightly woman who posed for a photo and wished me well on my
journey. You can see my first non-English news article in the local
paper, Le Petit Journal here.
5. A group of adults pretending to be a Spanish
horse:
As we were leaving the fete a dozen or so people wearing high-vis
yellow vests and carrying a large wooden ladder marched past us
following their whistle-blowing leader. He then stopped abruptly,
singling out and conversing with a man in the crowd. With another
sharp blow on his whistle the group took shape, one person climbed
the ladder while others supported it and the rest of them froze in
unusual poses. Apparently they were being a Spanish horse, a
suggestion from the crowd. They held the position for about 10
seconds and with a final blow on the whistle they broke up and
marched out of the fete, leaving everyone scratching their heads
wondering if they were on some sort of chestnut LSD trip. What
better way to celebrate your little village being chestnut central,
than with some amateur performance art?
Many thanks to Mike and Susie from Le
Perchoir des Paons for introducing me to this wonderful nutty
fete, a true glimpse and celebration of some of France's oldest
rural traditions.