How To Have Fun At The French Kissing Festival!

Problem
Kissing festival? Where? When?

Answer
FRANCE VALENTINE'S DAY AND KISSING
It's at Roquemaure in South East France, on the Rhône river, the Saturday before Valentine's Day (according to the local website). Please check dates. The name means black rock in Occitan language. Roque is French for rock.

Wine, women and wonderful.

Not just any women. Kissing nuns. And kissing priests. The festival was started by a priest.

In February 2018, in London, it's flu season. Frankly, I'm a bit wary of kissing anybody on the lips. Or even the cheek. Or even shaking hands. Or being in a room with lots of people.

However, I am interested in the Fête du Baiser, La Fête du Baiser.

It's at Roquemaure on the Rhône river. Not the Rhine, the Rhône. I don't know the Rhône well.

I have heard of Château-neuf-du-Pape on the other side of the river. In English the name means the new home (or castle or mansion) of the pope. So this area of the Rhône is a wine region, an important wine region, depending on wine for prestige and income.

Roquemaure is 12 kilometers north of Avignon. Everybody knows Avignon. In kindergarten, we sang, Sur le Pont D'Avignon, on y danse, on y danse. On the bridge of Avignon, everyone dances, everyone dances. Unfortunately, that's a mistranslation. Even in the days of the horse and cart dancing in the road was a dangerous thing to do. They were not dancing sur but sous le pont, underneath it.

The local people dress in period costume. The wine is free and flows freely. (Is there an entrance fee? Or do you pay in kisses?)

What can you buy locally? Commemorative stamps at the post office opened for the festival in the Capitale des Amoureux. Wine and Cheese. A complete meal, starting with olives and walnuts. For your starter or main course, speciality sausages, and to flavour any other main course you choose (such as scrambled eggs), savoury aromatic truffles. To finish with something sweet and romantic, lavender honey and gingerbread hearts.

For more details see the Sydney Morning Herald:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/02/18/1108609398996.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roquemaure,_Gard
avignon-et-provence.com

OVER TO ITALY - VALENTINES AND ANIMALS
If you think that's odd, St Anton's church in Italy blesses dogs. In fact all kinds of animals. (See next post.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Fun Photos, French Dragons and Wine Stories From London Wine Fair - Domaine du Dragon - the Dragon's Domain

London Wine Fair was a trade show held in London in May. Other wine trade events coming up include a Vinexpo Hong Kong wine fair in Hong Kong, 24-26 May 2016. More fun, food and wine events for your diary, even if you are not in the wine trade but a member of the public who likes food and wine:

Taste of London 15-19 June, 2016, in London, England. This one is open to the public. Website at the end of this article.

BBC Good Food Show at Excel London, Friday 20 May, Sat 21st and Sunday 22nd 2016. Open to the public.

Here's a picture of Domaine du Dragon wines at the London Wine Fair. Lisa is English. Her husband is French. The wine company is named after the mythological dragon in the area. Why would they have a mythological dragon in France? Well, we have George and the dragon in England. It makes a memorable logo for their wines. Myth says the dragon terrorised local people but was despatched.

If you must see a dragon, much larger than a little lizard, and quite dangerous, we have a komodo dragon in London Zoo. If you want to see a dragon in real life, Komodo dragons are in Indonesia.  Singapore Zoo  + Night Safari (see both on combined ticket) has a komodo dragon or monitor lizard given to Lee Kuan Yew by an Indonesian leader. Frankly, a dragon on a bottle of wine is quite enough excitement for me.

As you see from the picture, a French rosé wine with a pink dragon. Lisa Nezam and her husband are a jolly, friendly couple, as you can tell. In my picture Lisa seems to have a salmon pink jacket and red hair to match the wine in the distinctive broad-based bottle. Côtes de Provence is the Provence area. Appellation d'origins Protégée means name of origin protected.

More information from their website listed below:

This is their new rose wine. I asked about wine visits for the public and she wrote back to remind me:

 Here is our website link below with lots of history about the domaine; we welcome visitors and have gite accommodation and a shop; so feel free to send your readers down to see us!

Kind regards,

Lisa Nezam

Domaine du Dragon

On their website you can read amusing stories about the legend of the dragon, the record of the dragon story by historian Jean Nostradamus, the younger brother of Nostradamus (famous for predictions of the future).

The website also shows you the ruined church nearby whose remains you can see pictured. You can read about the man who ran off with the church's money and valuables.

Coming to modern times, you can also read about the award winning wine, which won the Gold award at Avignon. I recall the song we learned to practise French as children. I thought it went, 'Sur le pont d'Avignon, on y danse, on y dance, tout en rond ... ' As a child I always wondered why they were dancing on a bridge. Now, as an adult, I wonder whether they were dancing in circles on the bridge of Avignon before or after having a glass of wine? Maybe to celebrate a summer wine festival, or harvest festival? However, I looked up the song on Wikipedia and found the dancers were sous or under the bridge, not sur or on it.

Back to the new wine and the winery. The Domaine du Dragon winery shop is open all year, from ten to twelve Monday to Friday in low season and Saturday as well in high season, afternoons three to six in low season and until 7 pm in high season. If you want to visit the winery, phone ahead. The phone number is on their website. You can also buy their wines all over France and several foreign countries and on line.

You can have a weekly rental in their g î  t e  which is a guest house.
After some debate with my English family as to whether a gîte was in the countryside I found this explanation in Wikipedia:

Gîte

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

accommodation. A gîte is a holiday home available for rent. Gîtes are usually fully furnished and equipped for self-catering. Many owners choose to handle their own rentals, and one can find these by searching online on the multitude of listing sites or by checking with the local tourist information office.

Technically, to be called a gîte, the owner must live close by in order to provide help, assistance, and a warm welcome to guests.

More Information From:
http://domainedudragon.com/en/the-domain/

www.domainedudragon.com

vinexpohongkong.com

http://london.tastefestivals.com

bbcgoodfoodshowssummerondon.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Follow me on Facebook, link to me on LinkedIn, watch me on YouTube talking about etiquette in France and England at table in restaurants, and read excerpts of my books or buy them from Lulu.com . Look for me at writers' holidays and food and wine fairs and I won't say no to a glass or wine or taste of delectable food.

If you love music, travel on - songs associated with cities; UK, Europe, USA

Cities are associated with songs. When we used to show slide shows on returning from overseas, we would pick a song to set the atmosphere as we started and ended. Now you can do the same with a slideshow on Powerpoint or the Apple version, Keynote.

England
Why do I think songs are associated with cities? Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner, the popular song says. As I leave for Europe on the ferry I hope 'there'll be blue skies over the white cliffs of Dover', as Vera Lynn sang to raise morale in World War II.
A few more:
The Eton boating song.

Here's a list I'm compiling:

UK
Ireland
When Irish eyes are smiling. (Great song to accompany a picture of family, friend, or character met on your travels. Or a picture of your favourite singer or group.)
If you're Irish come into the parlour!
Molly Malone.

Scotland
You take the high road ... great song to accompany a picture, a vista, of a road through the Scottish hillsides and valleys.

Europe
Many more songs are associated with France, Italy, Spain.
France - The Marseillaise; Sur le pont (D'avignon - music to accompany any bridge - you say, 'Well of course this isn't Avignon, this is such and such a bridge,' or, "This is the bridge at Avignon, so many miles north of where we travelled to  .... where we saw this bridge across the river ... )
Italy - All over Italy ...
Spain - Que Viva Espagna!

USA
Bridge over troubled water - 'this is the Golden Gate Bridge ... and the prison of Alcatraz is  open to visitors ... from here you can look down on ..."
I left my heart in San Francisco
Galveston, oh Galveston ...
... that's why I hang my hat in Tennessee

Many states and cities have songs or musicals associated with their names: Chicago; Oklahoma; Miss Saigon.

You could also research through history, finding the top ten records of the year to match your photos, either of the year of your birth, your trip, or of buildings which you have photographed, or a historic photo from Wikipedia of the same main street years ago, such as a Wild West town.

Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer, speaker.

PS If you are making a public presentation you will have to find works which are old enough to be out of copyright, unless you invest in paying for a performing right license. (Some venues will already have this.)