Friends from Canada and elsewhere in France have been staying with us recently. Good reasons to head over the hills past the vines that make all that lovely blanquette and into Limoux. There, this time of the year, every weekend is carnival weekend.
Some weeks are better than others. A recent Saturday was a standout with costumed revelers from all over Europe. Each group enters the square, performs their particular ritual or dance, then winds into the back streets, back into the square and into the different cafes.
Kids get into the act too. Little girls dress up in fairy and princess costumes--usually pink. Boys don masks, like this petit garcon riding the merry-go-round.
This is an old, old festival. The spookiest group were these men dressed in sheepskins. The man wearing the two sheep made them "kiss" occasionally. Kernels of corn were thrown. Bunches of wild greens hung from some of the costumes. Can you spell "ancient fertility rite"?
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