It was
confirmed to me today that spring is on its way at La Fête des Violettes in
Tourrettes-sur-Loup. I don’t know much about when certain flowers bloom but
February seemed early for violets. But I was wrong as they are apparently the
harbinger of spring and were displayed all over the village for its annual
celebration. And there weren’t just violets; mimosas and other seasonal flowers
were decorating the town and its floats, but the violet was the star of the show.
Usually these festivals come with a hassle factor in that it is impossible to park, but I felt very clever in tackling that. I saw a walking trail on the map that connected the old train station to the medieval town. So while the others waited for the shuttle bus, I set off on my little path, which used to be the old railway line and followed it as it went into the woods on a perfect stone trail and then upwards.
Twenty minutes later, as soon as I neared the top and the
medieval gate, I got a sense of how popular this fair was. Perhaps was because
the kids were on school break, but it seemed like there were at least a
thousand Italians. I heard Italian everywhere and hardly a word of French. Did
they all come together? Is this what the Italians do every year? I decided to
take a deep breath and enjoy this beautifully sunny day and ignore the fact
that the hassle factor might quadruple with the Italian invasion. Now off to
explore the village…
Having very slowly (remember, all those Italians?) made it to
the other side of this tiny village and through another old portal, I arrived
in the main square. This is where most of the action was happening –
restaurants serving lunch (al fresco as it was a warm sunny day), stands
selling the using Provençal wares (ceramics, linens) plus violet soaps,
crystalized violets candies and lots of food choices. I went for a glass of
rosé with my plate of sausage, and then had a Tunisian ‘brik’. Okay, this is not
typical Provençal but there is a huge community of Northern Africans living in
this area and I have fond memories of ‘brik’ when visiting my friends in Tunis.
It’s fried philo dough stuffed with tuna, egg, onions and parsley and it was
really yummy.
Now it was time to sit down and wait for the parade to come past
with the flowery floats. The photos don’t really give you a sense of the moment
as each group had some sort of music either played by live bands or blasting
from a sound system. People were dancing around, spraying each other with the
classic Carnival style string like goop and generally enjoying themselves. The
most fun float was the Tourrettes-sur-Loup rugby team, whose decorated ‘car’
was Fred Flintstone like with the whole rugby team inside acting as the wheels. 
The most talented group were the kids who led the float of the local soccer
team. They must have been about 10 yrs old and they were doing fancy foot work
bouncing the ball on their knees, passing it around, back on the knees, all
while leading their float through the village. 
When the last float came through
I decided it was time to head down back through the medieval town (which was
now gloriously empty), hike down the forested path and back to my car, parked
for a perfect getaway. I can only imagine there was absolute mayhem when the
crowds decided to leave town.
Another tough day living on the Côte d’Azur!
