Fete du Citron

Dear Family and Friends,

This past weekend was our Stake Conference in Nice. It also happened to be the weekend of the Fete du Citron, or the Lemon Festiva in the city of Menton on the French-Italian border. Therefore, after conference was over, we decided to take a short drive east to see what the festival was about. Below are some pictures from our very short visit.



Menton is known for citrus because of its exceptionally mild year-round climate. The streets are lined with orange, tangerine, and lemon trees, some of which are harvested for the festival.



Entrance to the displays

 During the festival, there are numerous displays and parade floats built out of citrus. This year's them was the great civilizations.



One of many displays made of lemons and oranges

Unfortunately, it was Sunday and we didn't want to pay to see the exhibits. Therefore, the only things that we could see were the tops of the displays that were visible over the fence.

View of Menton and the Italian Coastline

Although we were sad not to be able to see the displays, we did take a nice stroll along the boardwalk. The kids watched the waves crashing into the rocks to see who would get wet from the spray.



Monte Carlo

  After seeing what we could of the Citrus Festival, we drove up the coast. Our drive took us along the cliffs and through many small villages perched on the side of the mountains. From one point, we had an excellent view of Monte Carlo, our favorite city on the French Riviera.

Turbie Monument

One of the towns through which we passed was Turbie. Its main attraction is a monument built by the Roman Senate to the Emperor Augustus in the year 15 B.C.

Turbie

 Turbie also has a very quaint old town which is said to have been built with stones from the monument.

Turbie Old Town

 The town itself is a large maze, which had it not been cold and getting dark by the time we arrived the kids might have enjoyed.

Bonne Semaine!
Have a great week!

Joe, Julie, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel