The 15th August is the festival of l’Assomption – a jour férié (public holiday) celebrated by Catholics throughout France and commemorating the departure of Mary from this life and the assumption of her body into heaven.
Count Joseph Augustin De Mailly d’Haucourt was born in 1707 in the Sarthe. In 1726, he entered military service as a musketeer, and in 1749 was appointed lieutenant general for the Roussillon and commander in…
Although France has been laïque (secular) since 1905, there are a huge number of festivals and traditions based around the lives, accomplishments or remarkable events that happened to various saints.
As the Feria approaches, Simon Newman looks back on the traditional bull running in the streets of Ceret.
The poor were starving to death on the streets of Paris. In the royal palace, the king’s breakfast consisted of 4 chops, a full chicken, six poached eggs and a slice of ham, washed down with a bottle and a half of champagne.
Music for the sardane is played by a cobla, a wind band with double bass consisting of 12 instruments played by 11 musicians. Four of these instruments (tenora, tible, flabiol and tamborí) are typical Catalan instruments along with the more traditional trumpet, trombone, fiscorn and double bass. The makeup of a cobla never varies.
Constructed in locally mined marble, with 15 bedrooms, chapel, billiard room and swimming pool, you would think that Chateau d’Aubiry, the magnificent building on your right half way between Le Boulou and Céret, would have been snapped up by now.
Jazz en Tech 2023 – from 21 July to 6th August – is showcasing a wonderful selection of International and French jazz musicians and singers, with programme defined to appeal to all
Despite it’s beginnings in Christianity, the Feux de la Saint Jean is linked with ancient practices and white magic
No event in the Catalan calendar is more important than Els Focs de la Sant Jean or The Fires of St John, our mid-summer rites held on the region’s sacred mountain, Canigou (2,784 metres), and in towns and villages right across Catalonia.
