Just back from the Christmas market in Albi. Lots of people about enjoying the mild weather. We took our youngest granddaughter and inevitably ended up at Santa’s grotto. She met with Santa, was given a present and had her photo taken with the bearded wonder.
Great news is that all was free, all paid for by the local council. What a brilliant gesture to offer the local families.
I’ve no idea if this is standard practice throughout France, what happens where you are ?
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Our local town houses the national toy museum, and has a lot of child centred activities. At Christmas there is always a three day festival “Noel au pays de Jouet”, with workshops for kids, spectacles for all ages, a Christmas market and mulled wine by the bucketload. And decorations which are often the result of kids workshops too.
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Didn’t réalise that Jane, not too far from us so that could be a nice day out.
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The children’s festival n July always seems full of interesting things (the link is for last years activities even tho dates are for ‘23)
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Are you sure Peter? It looks like a six hour drive from Albi. Maybe make it a weekend!
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Well it’s about two hours to Béziers so how far from Béziers to Pezenas?
I’m sure @JaneJones would give a far more precise answer, but I’m just pasting in the address from her link and noting that Beziers is an hour closer than Albi. Pezenas is a lovely place, but it may not be wholly relevant…
The festival office address is
87 avenue de Saint-Claude
F-39260, MOIRANS EN MONTAGNE,
Bugger all. I’ll be in that neck of the woods tomorrow myself. Not a million miles from where I am.
Awesome. Went too with wife for day out. It’s about an hour from where we live. The old town and cathedral are fabulous. Stunning craftsmanship. Against all odds small independent shops still exist selling good stuff too. Saturday is market day.
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Yes Adrian, lovely town with a proactive council. Parking is easy with three underground parks with the centre easily accessible. The town centre doesn’t have many empty shops or boutiques . The architecture etc is very easy on the eye with the cathedral and palace taking centre stage. I can see the cathedral from my window as I write.
We visited Gaillac Christmas market yesterday and that was ok too though the town itself is much smaller. The Sunday market is pretty good and worth a stroll around.
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We spent a night in Albi earlier this year allowing us 2 days to take in the town. It certainly is a beautiful place.
And in keeping with the pro active council we stayed over night with our camping car on a totally free site within easy walking distance of the town centre.
Well done Albi.
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The children from Tri
Sorry, don’t understand Jane.
I deleted this because I am waiting for a photo, but this must have got through.
Here is the 'photo now. It is of our old folks lunch, but the village children came in to watch the magician in the afternoon. The man on the extreme left, our neighbour, became Father Christmas and they all got a gift.
Did you get to visit the Toulouse Lautrec museum ?
Here in the Medoc it is sadly rubbish in comparison. The region is alive during the summer months only,. Even at Xmas it’s disappointingly deserted and the handful of events that take place are very poorly arranged.
Perhaps your commune/area needs volunteers to help with animations/whatever during the Winter/Xmas season… ???
Whoever is responsible for the “handfull of events” might welcome you with open arms.
Indeed, I appreciate it’s easy to criticise from the sidelines. As a devout and vocal atheist I’m not sure my energy would be best spent on Xmas-related activities, but my partner and I have been discussing helping out with the “café polyglot” and the twinning association which have been mothballed due to Covid.
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Everyone sees things differently…
However, in my own commune there are “atheists/whatever” who help the Fete committee decorate/animate the village for the pleasure of all… nothing to do with religion… 
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Oops just spotted my typo - that should’ve said “my energy”. Stupid Autocorrect.
To avoid dragging this thread off topic, let’s agree to disagree 
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