Or, in English – the Scarecrow Festival !
We heard about this literally the day before, from our friends at La Gravette in St. Cyprien (also referred to as the tortoise place as they have 2 wandering around their garden). Christian likes to keep me up to date on events and said this one was worth a look. Not wishing to look stupid but with no idea what an “epouvantail” was, I looked it up when we got home and discovered it was a scarecrow, and more specifically derived from those used in vineyards. They have been celebrating this folk art for 22 years now.
So we braved this summer’s inevitable showers and set off the following afternoon to find a typical large village fete with the added twist of scarecrows – a whole field of them in a competition for the people’s favourite.
We arrived to the sound of a drumming group – great fun and I videoed them, but forgot to get a still photo to put on here. However, they were soon followed by Les Majorettes – see photo which I took as they were too terrible to merit a video but did make us laugh and like the drummers, they were having fun!
Here are some shots of the scarecrows, we didn’t stay long enough to find out who won so you can pick your own favourite – and try to guess ours 😉
For the petrol heads amongst you some photos of the old cars which were on show in another field – no information or owners about, but nice to take a quick look. Inevitably a whole row of 2CVs, but you all know what they look like!
And some shots around the village of Meyrals, where this was held, which we wandered through on our way back to the car seeking out a Brocante shop which looked tiny but was another tardis full of lovely old pieces of furniture which the French don’t want and we do, if only there were enough places to put them!
