Menton Loves Lemons

The city of Menton, also called "la perle de la France," is located very close to the French-Italian border. It's a lovely little seaside town that apparently harbors a deep and profound love of lemons and other citrus fruit.

 We took the bus for about an hour yesterday to attend Menton's Fête du Citron...the Lemon Festival. 

This view of Menton's Old City doesn't reveal how lemon-crazed the city is. 

We had a little trouble finding the right bus to take to Menton, which totally wasn't our fault. Sometimes the evil powers that control the location of bus stops decide to completely change the routes of some buses without notifying anyone. ANYWAY, by the time we got to Menton we were all famished so we immediately found a restaurant. They had lunch plates that included dessert for only 10 euros.

They ran out of the chicken dish, so we all had the pork option that came with some kind of sauce that I don't remember but included white wine. The sauce tasted a little like a Chinese sweet-and-sour sauce. In France they call it sucré-salé. The pork was really tender and delicious; it's been the only pork dish besides sausage that I have had since I've been in France.

I am sure they used lemon in the sauce. 

For dessert, we had the choice of lemon tart or another tart that started with the letter M but none of us recognized. So naturally we choose the lemon tart. It was delicious, as one would expect a Menton lemon tart to be. 

Because if you're going to worship a citrus fruit, you should treat it well. 

After we tried to go to the actual festival, but the tickets for the entrance were 10 euros. It was a little too expensive, and we could see some of the stuff from outside of the fence. So we didn't go.

But we took lots of pictures of the entranceway!

We were a little offended that the city of Menton was charging people 10 euros to visit its biggest event of the year. I mean, people are spending a ton of money in your little town so maybe you should just let them walk through your citrus garden for free or at least a lower price?

So we stole a lemon from underneath the fence. 

Erin did the dirty work. I pretended to take pictures of the street and Blair was the other lookout. 

I think the theme of this year's festival was a trip around the world. 

The Statue of Liberty's brother, the Deacon of Citrusy (hee hee it doesn't even make sense but I don't care). 

We walked around the city for the rest of the afternoon, and we saw a ton of lemon statues and stores with lemons for sale and lemon products and lemon-themed furniture and shrimp with lemon and lemon-shrimp bisque and fried shrimp & lemons. You get the point.

A work in progress and an unhappy French homme. 

I liked Menton, although I am still a little offended at their exploitation of tourists. We had some very delicious ice cream. We also got free samples of the liquor limoncello, mustard made with Menton lemons, and, of course, some actual lemons. I bought a lemon that is the size of my face from a street vendor, and now I am trying to find a good no-bake recipe to use it with. 

While we're on the topic of Lemons....

If your festival wants to charge you ten euros to see a bunch of citrus statues, that's a Dealbreaker, ladies! 

...a moment of silence for our dearly departed 30 Rock.