26 February 2010

Fête du Citron: Cinema - Rubber Bands and Rotten Lemons


This shows us how the displays are made. First a metal frame is created ....for example the Ben Hur exhibit we saw a couple of days ago. Then wire netting is fixed to the frame. Then teams of volunteers fix one lemon or orange at a time onto the wire netting, each one attached with a rubber band. As I mentioned once before but it's worth saying again - 500,000 elastic bands are used and 145 metric tons of citrus are required.

You see a lemon is missing in the main photo and in the smaller one, one of the lemons is rotten and needs replacing. There are many people working in the Jardin Biovès each day and they walk around replacing any deteriorated citrus and this year, with the endless rain, there has been a lot of rotten fruit.

At the end of the festival (3 March), any fruit that is still in good condition is sold off to be made into jam and wine.

10 comments:

  1. You answered my question about what happens to the fruit! Thanks for the explanation!

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  2. une photo en hommage aux vrais héros de la fête ;)

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  3. I love being let in on the construction secrets.
    I have been thinking of lemons for the past three days, so it is very fun to see it is that time in Menton.
    -KIm

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  4. Makes me think of the song..Oranges and lemons sang the bells of St Clements

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  5. I cannot wait to visit.
    Your Blog is our daily routine!
    Thank you.

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  6. Merci, now I finally see how it's done. I've been thinkin g about it all week! I love lemons. I buy them year around. They are so cheerful and I use them in so many dishes I cook. Don't you love the smell of the zest!

    Bon weekend Jilly!
    V

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  7. Oh my! 145 metric tons! I'm just thinking about all that potential limoncello ... hope there are more lemons after this is all done!

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  8. Extraordinary. So much work put into the creation of these and so much work put into the maintenance of them!

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  9. This is all so interesting.

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