#63 - Celebration Days of France!

Celebrate the charm and cheer of French holidays and festivals. From the grandeur of Bastille Day fireworks to the sweet romance of Valentine's Day, we're going to dive into what makes France truly unique. 

We’ll talk about the main national holidays, and some of the celebrations that are not so well known outside of France and some celebrations and events that are outright strange! 

So coming up - some fun and fascinating facts, and plenty to enjoy.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 4:56 Celebration Days of France
• 28:12 Where to find Janine

Transcript

Podcast 63 TRANSCRIPT

Celebration days in France 

Janine: Bonjour, tout le monde! A great big welcome to The Good Life France podcast. I’m Janine, your London-born host though I’ve had a home in France for a long time. In fact, it was almost 21 years ago that I first came here a day trip to buy wine with my dad and my husband and ended up buying a house! It’s a long story, I’ve written a book about how I ended up here by pure fluke and more books about life in France after I decided to move here. It was our wedding anniversary, a cold February day, and my husband always says I can go where I like on my birthday so I chose a trip to Calais in northern France, which from London by boat or train is not that far, just a couple of hours. My mum had died a couple of years before and my dad took to drinking whisky a bit more than he should so my thinking was that wine would be better for him so off we went to buy wine. But while we were there, a property agent who gave us a cup of coffee persuaded me to look at his cheapest houses and as we had nothing else to do – we did! And the last one we looked at… well it’s a long story but in a nutshell, as I stood in the damp, dark kitchen of a hovel of a barn looking out at a big garden, a beam of sunlight burst through the grey sky, the bells of the local church started ringing in the distance and some ducks nearby started quacking and – it was a coup de foudre, I was utterly love struck. The house was big, 21 rooms and it cost 90,000 euros about the same in dollars and at the time about £66,000. Of course I didn’t think about how much work it would be to renovate – in fact we’re still renovating. My husband sold his beloved car to pay the deposit on the house, we gave up holidays and going to the gym and restaurants to pay the mortgage and carried on living and working in London for several years and visiting for weekends when we could and for holidays until it got so that we could hardly bear to leave. Well that’s a long intro isn’t it! And now we live here with our furry and feathered family - dogs, cats, chickens, ducks and geese. I’m the  editor of The Good Life France Magazine which is free at magazine.thegoodlifefrance.com and The Good Life France website – everything you want to know about France and more. And this year I’ll be hosting two very exclusive Paris tours and if you’re interested in joining me, feel free to message me. When I’m not being a maid, writer or traveller, I just love to chat to you on this podcast alongside my podcast partner, Olivier Jauffrit. 

Oli: A very grand bonjour to you all, yes indeed, I am Oli, your co-host and my story is almost the opposite to Janine’s! I lived in the UK for 20 years and I loved it but we decided to come back to France last year and that is why I sound almost English when I am speaking.  So, when we came back to France we had to decide where to live, and that’s not as easy as it sounds because there is just so much choice. Having lived in the UK we got used to the rain and the cold but we thought we’d like a bit of sun. We also wanted to live in the countryside but near a vibrant city and to have great transport links. We’d also got used to British food – chips with gravy, pies and roast dinners and we really love British food but we thought we’d like to go somewhere that’s famous for its French cuisine. Well Lyon in the south of France ticked all our boxes and now here we are. A bit of me still misses the UK and we visit often to see our friends and to be tourists. But we also love that when we get back to Lyon, the sun is nearly always shining! I was a radio producer and presenter in the UK and that’s what I do in France too, I work as a radio presenter in Lyon and on national radio stations in France. So that’s us, but now, Janine let’s find out what we’re going to be talking about today!  

Janine: Today, we’re going to celebrate the charm and cheer of French holidays and festivals. From the grandeur of Bastille Day fireworks to the sweet romance of Valentine's Day, we're going to dive into what makes France truly unique. We’ll talk about the main national holidays, and some of the celebrations that are not so well known outside of France and some celebrations and events that are outright strange! So coming up - some fun and fascinating facts, and plenty to enjoy.

Oli: Whether you love France for its wine, its culture, or just because it sounds cool to say “Champs-Élysées,” at least that’s what my British friends tell me, we’ve got a fun ride through France’s calendar of celebrations from the brilliant to the… let’s say – unusual!  

Oli: Ok let’s take this calendar of good cheer month by month shall we because, this is France and we love an excuse to party or have a festive get together and that means every single month has a special event to celebrate! 

Janine: It’s true! There are special days or national celebrations in France every month. Some of them are fixed Public Holidays, some are changeable Public Holidays and some are not holidays at all but treated as special days with friends and loved ones, days when traditions are held dear. There are eleven public holidays in France every year and several more days that are honoured and celebrated nationally. Not to mention the numerous events year round! 

Oli: So let’s kick off with the 1st of January - the Jour de l’An –  New Year’s Day. It’s a National holiday. We pretty much take it easy after a late night and parties the night before! In some places a dip in the sea is a thing on new year’s day – including in Dunkirk, in the north sea, near where you live Janine. Have you ever joined in? 

Janine: Erm no, the idea of it makes me shiver! I much prefer to get involve in January’s Fête des Rois –  the Feast of the Kings and we covered this in detail in episode 62 when we talked about the fabulous winter festivities on France. In case you haven’t heart that episode, on 6 January, it’s a tradition is to serve a special cake called “une galette des rois” which contains une fève (usually a porcelain figurine). The person who finds the hidden fève in their serving is named king or queen for the day and wears the paper crown sold with the galette. This year I had a bright orange football the size of an acorn in my galette – a definite tooth breaker if I had bitten into it! 

Oli: Ouch! Right we’re into February now, and one of the most important days of the year – February 2nd La Chandeleur – Candlemas - a day when traditionally crèpes are eaten. 

Janine: I’m actually not a fan of the thin crepes, but I love the ones from Brittany which are thicker and made with buckwheat! February is also Valentine’s Day and for all you lovers out there, Valentine’s Day in France is as romantic as you’d expect from the land of love. But did you know that the first recorded Valentine’s Day card was allegedly sent from a French duke in 1415? Charles, Duke of Orleans was imprisoned in the Tower of London having been captured in battle by the English, and wrote to his wife “I am already sick for love my very gentle Valentine.” It sounds even better in French – Oli over to you…

Oli: Je suis desja d'amour tanné Ma tres doulce Valentinée.”

Janine: Yep, super romantic! So Valentine’s Day in France is for lovers - cards, flowers or presents are shared with a special person. 

Oli: There are loads of places to celebrate romance in France including Annecy where there is a Pont des Amours, Lovers Bridge, and it’s said that if two lovers meet in the middle of the bridge and kiss, they will stay together for ever. In Strasbourg they have a 5 day celebration of love at the Strasbourg Mon amour festival.

Janine: And in Roquemaure, in the Gard region, southern France Actually each Valentine’s Day they have La Festo de Poutoun, or the Festival of Kisses. It celebrates the arrival of the relics of Saint Valentine in the town. On 14 February everyone in the town starts kissing anything and anyone that moves – it’s the world’s first and so far only kissing festival. It takes place for one day during even years, and on odd number years there is actually a 3 days festival of lovers! 

Oli: Ah l’amour….. Right we’re into March and actually, celebration-wise this is a bit of a sparse month as we move from winter to spring, though often Easter is celebrated in March. But what you will find is it’s carnival month, and parades, parties and carnivals take place all over France in March.

Janine – I love a good carnival – I’ve been to quite a lot and one of my favourites is Nice carnival, it’s so joyful and colourful, really blows the winter cobwebs away, and then just down the road at Menton is the lemon festival with its giant orange and lemon sculptures and night time parades. And the mimosa carnival too, not far from Cannes. There are carnivals everywhere in February and March.  In my part of France we have giants at the carnival, they’re a tradition from the middle ages, giant figures which used to be biblical but now they’re all sorts Romans, fishermen, folk women. They’re made from wicker and operated by people standing inside them – they dance and walk with the carnival goers, they even get married and have babies which is always a good excuse for a knees up! I once went to the baptism of a giant baby – she was 2 metres long, had a full head of hair and was wearing a full face of makeup. A mid-wife was on hand, and a priest conducted the baptism – it was bizarre, but brilliant fun! 

Oli: Only in the north! Lol. Right we’re into April which starts with Poisson d’Avri  – April Fool’s Day. No one really know for sure about the origins of April Fish Day, but historians mainly theorise that, as April 1st was the end of the fishing season, for fun (!), neighbours would hang fish from the backs of fishermen to mock their inability to work. 

Janine: Hilarious. Not! 

Oli: Other historians say it relates to the change of date on which New Year was celebrated – from April to January. It was traditional to give a gift for new year and often the present would be a fish, which was acceptable at a time that often coincided with Lent, when meat was avoided by Christians. From this came the tradition where people would give fake fish on 1st April – perhaps to tease those who didn’t know about or didn’t want to accept the change in the calendar. They had a strange sense of humour then. And it’s not just about fish, it’s also a time to trick people with pranks and it's traditional for kids to stick paper fish on people’s backs without them knowing – and we all laugh. 

Janine: Yes, you do. My neighbour Jean-Claude always sticks a paper fish on his wife Bernadette’s back and it always makes him laugh. She’s put up with that for 40 years of marriage! Though sometimes easter falls in March, it can also arrive in April. And we have Pâques – Easter Sunday. Unlike the UK most of France doesn’t celebrate Good Friday – that’s only in Alsace and Moselle in Lorraine because of their German heritage, and Germany celebrates Good Friday. Easter Monday follows and that’s a public holiday in France, and a time to eat chocolate of course. But in France it’s not all about chocolate bunnies and eggs – but bells! I’m not making it up I promise!

Oli: It’s true - In France chocolate bells are just as traditional as eggs. Legend has it that the church bells are silenced on the Friday before Easter, and fly to Rome to be blessed by the Pope. On Easter morning, the bells return from Rome and ring out loud. And on their way back, they drop chocolate treats for children to find.

Janine: And talking of eggs, there’s a special Eater event in Bessieres, near Toulouse where they cook a giant omelette with 15000 eggs, it’s so big they have to stir it with a telephone pole as a handle for the spoon! 

Oli: We also have the Jour de l’Ascension – Ascension Thursday, it’s a national holiday, held 40 days after Easter. One of the unusual events in April is the Fete de l’Escargot held in Osenbach, Alsace. And this annual snail festival is a serious event, the town even has a snail brotherhood. People come from far and wide for this two-day event with highlights including traditional music and dance, local beer tastings, snail tastings and a snail race.

Janine: We have an annual snail race in our village too! It brings everyone out of their shells. Get it?! 

Oli: Not funny. This is funny. Why do French people like to eat snails. Because they don’t like fast food.

Janine: Ha – that’s not true, there are more MacDonalds in France than any other country except for America! 

Oli: Is that true though. Really?

Janine: Yes it is! Apparently – I haven’t counted them all so I can’t say! 

Oli: Ok I’m just going to fast forward to May now! And in France we go a bit mad in May as we have 4 national holidays. Yes, really 4! May 1 –  Fête du Travail  – Labor Day which is all about celebrating workers' rights. The Fête du Travail in France began in 1793 just after the French Revolution. It was originally in mid-January but in the late 1880s when the United States began its campaign for a Labor Day, the French changed their Fête du Travail to match the growing labour movement.

Janine: 1 May, is also the Fete du Muguet in France. Muguet means lily of the valley. And for almost 500 years, it’s been a tradition to give these delicate, pretty flowers to those you love, friends and family. It all began in 1561 when King Charles IX was given a sprig on 1st May. He thought it such a lovely idea he gave the flowers to all the ladies of the court for May Day the next year. And the habit became part of French history… So May Day in France is like saying “I love you” and “I respect your right to a fair wage” all at once!

Oli: May 8 is the Jour de la Victoire 1945 – WWII Victory Day 1945. A public holiday which celebrates the end of World War II in Europe. We also have a holiday on Pentecôte – Pentecost Sunday, held 50 days after Easter. And there’s Lundi de Pentecôte – Whit Monday, though in 2005, the French Parliament voted to remove this holiday from the official list of public holidays. That didn’t please anyone, so some employers retained the day as a holiday for staff, and as a compromise, the government designated June 5 as a national school holiday. 

Janine: In June, no national holidays but we do have “La Fête de la Musique” on June 21st. This is a music lover's dream come true, where every street corner, park, and bar turns into a live concert venue. It’s been rockin’ since 1982. 

Oli: July is a biggie when it comes to celebrating.  Bastille Day, or as the French call it, “Le Quatorze Juillet.” It marks the storming of the Bastille prison on July 14, 1789, a pivotal moment in the French Revolution. It’s a day of pride and parties, complete with parades, fireworks. Officially, it’s been celebrated since 1880, and it’s the kind of party that proves the French know a thing or two about throwing a fête.

Janine: And it all kicks off the night before with street dances or Bals des Pompiers – parties  hosted at fire stations by local firemen. This is a tradition that began in 1937 when a group of people followed firefighters back to their station from a fête nationale parade! At our local fire station it’s very much a family affair, but I hear that at some there are firemen prancing about a la Chippendale style! It’s all about fund raising though, so all in a good cause. One of my favourite events of July is held in Finistere in Brittany and it’s called the Voyages Insolites, a celebration of the insolites - which means unusual. And this is a really quirky one! It’s basically when people get together and do crazy things – like beds on wheels races.

Oli: And there’s also a duck dance contest with 500 or so people and people do strange and rather odd things – one year someone achieved a Guinness book of world records for being beer caps at the festival!

Janine: They also have pancake, flipflop, egg and beret throwing competitions. This event really lives up to its name – very unusual. Mind you down the road from this festival, near Roscoff they have a periwinkle spitting contest. Yes people spit periwinkles – the little shellfish, not the plant - as far as they can. What do you think the record is Oli?

Oli: I have to say I have never ever thought about such a thing – but, they’re very small, hard to get traction, maybe 4 metres?

Janine: I love your working out but no - the record is 11.04 metres. So now you know what to aim for if you decided to enter the contest. 

Oli: Not going to happen, I’d have to practice a lot and I don’t think my neighbours or my partner would appreciate the sight of me in the garden spitting periwinkles! And now we’re into August and we’re pretty much celebrating all month that it’s summer but we also have a national holiday - L’Assomption – Assumption of Virgin Mary.

Janine: August is the month of an unusual event in south-west France – in the town of Trie Sur Baïse, Hautes-Pyrénées. This area used to be a main pig-rearing region and on the second Sunday in August that reputation is honoured with a festival that features everything porky, from stalls selling sausages to piglet races where visitors can bet on which creature they think will win. There’s also the cri de cochon, pig-squealing championship, where contestants have to make different pig noises from the various stages of the animals’ life cycle. Ever felt tempted to go for it Oli?

Oli: Erm no – I wouldn’t want to hog the limelight! Lol

Janine: That’s bad. Oinkredibly bad. Sorry, I couldn’t resist it! Moving swiftly into September before we turn into a pair of pig punning hams, summer is over and we’re all getting back to normal after lots of time off and there’s lots going on. 

Oli: One of the key events of September is the Journées Européennes du Patrimoine – European Heritage Days. Hundreds of historical buildings, famous monuments, Government sites and places of interest – some of which are normally closed to the public, open their doors and welcome visitors. 

Janine: September is also the month when the pint-sized village of Le Quesnoy in Nord, not far from where I live, holds it’s an annual milk festival attracting farmers from across the region. You can marvel at 100 different specimens of cow and sample some of the area’s finest dairy products. And there is a unique beauty queen competition, where young women from local villages compete to be crowned Miss Protein. A strange one to stick on your cv. 

Oli: October is a bit of a quiet month as we start to prepare for the end of year holiday season…

Janine: But it is when the Fête Historique des Louches, the festival of spoons, takes place in Comines, Nord – again near where I live – clearly I live in the party loving bit of France! The legend goes that the Lord of the town was imprisoned in a high tower, and to show his people where he was being held, he apparently threw a wooden spoon with his coat of arms from the tower. The festival includes a parade in which wooden spoons are hurled at the crowd. The goal is to walk away with the most sppons, proving to everyone that you truly deserve to live in the town of Comines.

Oli: Hmm, that’s different but handy if you run out of wooden spoons! So now we’re into November. The first of the month is La Toussaint – All Saint’s Day. It’s a Public holiday to honour all saints, and a day to remember the souls of the dead. A French tradition is to place chrysanthemums on the graves of departed loved ones. 

Janine: When I first came to France, I didn’t know this tradition but the shops were all full of huge pots of colourful chrysanthemums and I thought it would be nice to buy some for the neighbours who had been so welcoming. They still remind me now what a faux pas that was, but they knew I meant well. 

Oli: November 11 is a national holiday in France – Jour l’Armistice – Armistice Day (1918) and celebrates the end of World War I in Europe, almost every town and village in France will hold services of remembrance at 11am.

Janine: Yes, I love that this tradition is honoured all over France, even in my little village of 152 people we all meet at the cenotaph in the village and the mayor lays a wreath and reads out the names of all those lost from the village during World War I and World War II, including a young British soldier who died here in 1915, and is buried in the village cemetery and his grave is meticulously looked after by the villagers. It’s a really poignant event and it always makes my eyes water. 

Oli: Ok – we’re coming to the end of the year and in November we have Beaujolais Nouveau – a festival of new wine from the region of Beaujolais which is near where I live in Lyon. The new harvest of Beaujolais wine is celebrated on the third Thursday of November, released at the stroke of midnight! 

Janine: It’s not a public holiday, but it might as well be. It celebrates the first wine of the season, and by celebrate, I mean everyone tasting the new wine at the same time. It’s like a national “cheers!” Ok here’s an unusual event in November - La fête de la Sainte-Catherine - St Catherine’s Day 25 November is Saint Catherine's Day -  the day of the Catherinettes. It’s a tradition for single women (over the age of 25) to wear extravagant hats in bright yellow and green tones. Yes it’s a sort of “Old Maids Day”. Proper weird! It’s a bit like the French version of a bachelorette party but with more style and fewer regrets. The practice is less widespread than it used to be – which is not really surprising. 

Oli: Then we’re into December and the big day is of course Noël – Christmas Day. This national holiday begins the evening before with the réveillon de Noel (Christmas Eve). And on December 31 – New Year’s Eve is known as Le réveillon de la Saint-Sylvestre, or le Saint-Sylvestre. Who was Saint Sylvester you wonder? Was he a party lover? Well no he wasn’t. He was a 4th century pope who was made a saint and he was buried in Rome on December 31st, in the year 335 and that’s why it’s his Saint’s Day! 

Janine: I hate to be a party pooper but – that’s the end of our year of celebration in France! Whether you're dancing the night away at the Fête de la Musique, spitting periwinkles, eating delicious cakes, tossing flip flops or making pig noises, these celebrations showcase the charm and vibrancy of French culture. Thank you for joining us on this festive journey through France!

Oli: Don’t forget to follow us wherever you get your podcasts, and leave us a review, it’s like spinach for Popeye! 

Oli: Thank you so much, a massive merci beaucoup, to everyone for listening to our podcast in nearly 150 countries all around the world! And a massive thank you for sharing the podcast with your friends and family, we’re truly grateful when you do that. You’ve been listening to Janine Marsh and me Olivier Jauffrit. 

Janine: And you can find me  and heaps of information about France – where to visit, culture, history, recipes – everything France - at thegoodlifefrance.com where you can subscribe to the podcast, my weekly newsletter about France and our totally brilliant, totally free magazine which you can read at magazine.thegoodlifefrance.com 

But for now, it’s au revoir from me.

Olivier: And goodbye from me.

Janine: Speak to you soon!