Photos from the Ollioules Olive Festival

Greetings dear readers and friends. Well, here we are…  another Olive Festival come and gone. As I mentioned in a post a few weeks back, this festival is one of the most anticipated events of the fall season and something we look forward to all year long.

And this year did not disappoint. After a little rain, which we really needed after these many hot weeks, we hopped in the car and headed toward the village to take one of the many shuttle buses to the center of town.

The great thing about these Provençal festivals is that organizers usually block the center of the village from traffic, therefore allowing festival-goers to stroll from stand-to-stand without the worry of passing cars. This was especially nice as it gave our 3-year-old free reign to hop from exhibit to exhibit.

So what was on at the Olive Festival? Anything and everything. Olive-oil pressing demonstrations, tours of the Ollioules Olive Mill, food-tastings of all varieties, cooking demonstrations and cooking contests (ie. who could make the best aioli), crafts and games for the kids, and as always, a whole lot of olives.

Other food stands included the “famous” (for the region) Provençal biscuit & cookie makers the Navarro family and one of Ollioules’ first families: the Provençal nougat makers Jonquier.

We “cracked”, as the French would say, and went in for a good, old-fashioned bag of roasted chestnuts – another “must-do” of the season. Between sampling all the food fare, playing traditional children’s games (they had a wooden, peddle-powered carrousel that was just too cool), and getting to know all things olive, I couldn’t think of a better way to spend a chilly, fall day.