Read more to find out why do food and wine festivals matter in France and why travelers should choose to experience it.
Food and wine festivals work to showcase wonderful local food, and the passion of the people who produce it. These festivals have been all but eliminated in 2020, and it is a real shame. This article will outline why they matter and why they are so important to travelers. At the moment of writing and posting, there is of course some hesitation about grouping together hundreds of people or more and having them share the same food tent or food hall. We really hope they will return soon.
The main reasons we should maintain and support wine and food festivals are as follows:
• Everyone has fun
• You will participate in a rich and historical tradition and boost culture and identity
• You will support local producers and boost the Slow Food Travel movement
Above all, the main reason we should support local food and wine festivals (I of course also support beer and other such drinks too) is that they are an exceptional way to have fun, experience new tastes and meet loads of new and dynamic people. Unless you are hit by rain or bad weather you are nearly guaranteed to have a good time. Who doesn’t like trying new hassle-free foods and excellent wine? Even before arriving at a festival you will have your stomach rumbling just thinking about trying tasty foods and nibbles, washed down with quality beverages. You will leave having stepped off the edge, towards new epicurean horizons. There is generally a lot more mingling with staff and visitors and this is a good thing.
I think the quotes of chef and my favourite travel writer Anthony Bourdain to “Drink heavily with locals whenever possible” and that “you learn a lot about someone when you share a meal together” are perfect for summarizing what happens at a good festival!
This might be challenging during this Covid pandemic but of course should be quickly reinstated afterwards, be that with masks and social distancing or not.
The history of food and drink is a long, exciting journey. Food and drink started off as something essential, something that we needed simply to survive. Some foods were scary and new, many products weren’t available to all countries and throughout the years many foods have been rationed to keep peace. Now we are faced with an endless stream of products, options and suppliers, we have an array of farmers markets, county fairs and food festivals that offer celebration of food and drink. There is certainly one every weekend of the year here in France. We want indulgence, we want fantastic taste and we want choice. But where did all of it start?
Perhaps the most original form of celebration for food is the Harvest Festival. A harvest festival is an annual celebration that occurs around the time of the main harvest of a given region. Given the differences in climate and crops around the world, harvest festivals can be found at various times at different places. Harvest festivals typically feature feasting, with foods that are drawn from crops that come to maturity around the time of the festival. Ample food and freedom from the necessity to work in the fields are two central features of harvest festivals: eating, merriment, contests, music and romance are common features of harvest festivals in France and this has not changed up until today. The best examples from France are the wine festivals that celebrate the launch of a new vintage. These are in the Autumn and the Beaujolais Nouveau is among the most famous.
NOTE: French wine and food festivals happen all year round too so there’s no need to wait for the autumn harvest! These local events have always attracted ‘outsiders’ and so help boost and maintain the identity of the rural community by encouraging consumption of their local products, and as such protect traditional savoir-faire.
The original reason (see above) for these festivals is of course to sell local goods. Many people in our modern societies have become increasingly disconnected with the reality of how food is made, and we risk forgetting the time and effort that goes into growing, producing and making our primary produce. A good food festival should be more than just an eating extravaganza. It should be taken as a cultural and critical platform for our eating and drinking, and seek to educate and provoke us into thinking more deeply about how and what we eat. In that context eating locally makes both economic and environmental good sense. Festivals create a unique opportunity to get people thinking about how and why we eat the way we do, in a fun and creative format. The aim of the Festival is to get visitors trying, tasting and experiencing new things, sharing delicious food and drink, which makes people more open to thinking differently.
A local festival allows a producer to rise early and transport his or her goods to the local site, and sell directly to the client, perhaps with a discount. The profits may be higher and the costs probably lower for the producer. The farmer poet Wendell Berry says, “eating is an agricultural act”, and therefore it follows that producing food must be considered a “gastronomic act”. The Slow Food Travel movement takes these ideas and offers a new model for tourism, made up of meetings and exchanges with farmers, cheesemakers, herders, butchers, bakers and winegrowers who, along with the chefs who cook their products, who will be the narrators of their local areas and unique guides to the local traditions. A festival encapsulates this. We wholeheartedly encourage you to experience one soon.
As mentioned earlier, there are so many food and wine festivals in France and all regions have one or more to be proud of. The nicest festivals I recommend are as follows:
• Les Sarmentelles (Beajolais Nouveau) in Beaujolais in November
• Fête du Ventre et de la Gastronomie Normande (Festival of the stomach and Norman gastronomy) in Rouen in October
• Les Habits de Lumière, in Epernay in Champagne in December
• Fête de la Truffle (The Truffle Festival), in Sarlat-la-Canéda in January
• Fete des Vendanges de Montmartre in Paris in October
• the list goes on…
Contact us to create an itinerary including a festival for you next adventure. Do not hesitate to make the request for any month of the year. We reply quickly by email for special offers, adapted Covid-19 cancellation terms and detailed recommendations.
Also, you can check our our pre-made but 100% customizable itineraries.
