OK, and a bit of lime and grapefruit because I love them. It’s citrus season in the south of France and with the Menton Fête du Citron coming up in just over a week (as well as the fact I recently bought all the equipment), I thought I’d give juicing a go.
Juicing has become a pretty big thing in the ‘health’ world. Adding just one vitamin-rich juice to your day will help bolster your immune system, improve skin complexion and texture, and boost energy levels. I’ve never been one for diets (there’s nothing wrong with eating in moderation in my opinion), but have found it hard to resist the allure of kick starting my day with some, if not all, of my five a day. France, in fact, believes you should aim for ten a day – double what I am used to as a Brit.
I mixed a lemon (too many and you’ll have a bitter juice), with a three oranges, a few clementines, a lime, a grapefruit and a pomegranate. While I didn’t want to add any sugar to my juice, on first taste it was still a little too zesty to drink alone so I blitzed in a little honey and some ice cubes. The result: a juice packed with vitamins A, B and C that brightened me up almost instantly.
Something that I’ve always loved about winter in the Riviera is seeing pulp, juicy oranges growing in the trees that line the street, even when it’s bitter cold out. I spent my first two years as an expat living in Nice and right outside my first apartment was an avenue full of trees brimming with blood oranges that really were too good not to try.
The whole region gets citrus fever at this time of year, not least Menton, one of the last French towns on our coastline before you reach the Italian region of Liguria. Every year in February and for almost a century, Menton dresses in gardens, parks and streets with thousands of citrus fruits that count over a hundred different varieties amongst their number – the Biovès Gardens alone will contain almost 15,000 tonnes of fruit this year!
The festival is a celebration of the heritage of lemon-growing in the region and the ‘lemon of Menton’ even has its own legend. The story tells of how Eve, expelled from the Garden of Eve with Adam, took a lemon with her as they left. With the prospect of further divine wrath troubling him, Adam pleaded with her to throw the golden fruit away. While Eve eventually agreed, she promised to only leave it in a place of her choosing. The couple ‘crossed mountains, valley and plains’ until reaching the shores of the Baie de Garavan. This lush, warm and beautiful place reminded Eve of her lost paradise and she buried her treasured lemon in the ground. It would be from here that the town of Menton sprang along with its citrus inspired culture, as the legend goes.
Beginning February 14th and continuing until March 4th, the Fête du Citron is a stunning event on the calendar of the Riviera. If you head to the town in the latter period of the festival, you can buy the fruits used in the displays at excellent prices and soak up some of the sunshine that makes Menton the warmest and most sunlit town in all of France.
For more information on the festival, click here.
