February and March see carnivals all over the P-O – fancy dress, street parades and fireworks, singing, dancing…..along with the symbolic burning of evil spirits. Carnival actually dates back to the ancient Greek spring festival in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine. It was a massive binge – a celebration of excess, and later the church, unable to suppress it, wisely adapted it instead to its own traditions
Carnival actually dates back to the ancient Greek spring festival in honour of Dionysus, the god of wine. It was a massive binge – a celebration of excess, and later the church, unable to suppress it, wisely adapted it instead to its own traditions.
This French Christmas character, the ‘whipping father’, said to accompany Santa on his rounds on 6th December, is fortunately no longer heard of much in French tradition.
Orange trees, like all citrus, thrive around the Mediterranean and particularly here in the PO.
Did you know that the croissant, firmly associated with France, actually originated in Austria?
The word ‘poilu’ was coined from the caricature image of the bear-like, bearded and moustached French soldier, much used in propaganda at the time.
by Charlotte Lomax Coustouges is the epitome of the kind of sleepy, southern village that lies at the heart of every Francophile’s perception of rural France; the land of men walking home from the village…
Thérèse Cau, daughter of Spanish Republicans and native of Port Vendres, recounts the tumultuous history of her family, from their origins in Catalonia to their lives in France today.
Follow the colourful and fascinating journey of the lovely Helen Férrieux from Salford to Saint Nazaire
Looking for men and women extras aged 16 to 80, of all origins and all profiles, here in the Pyrenees-Orientales