The Chestnut Festival 2011 in Provence

Chestnuts amidst a landscape of autumnal rapture – Just two reasons to visit Provence this October.

The glamorous ladies have departed their summer-long residence on the beach, the millions of grapes once swarming the fields have been picked and harvested, and many of the swanky hotels and restaurants are closing for the winter, but hang on, there is one party still left to attend in Provence – the Chestnut Festival 2011!

The region of Var in Provence has named itself as being the “chestnut capital of the world”. Given its self-admitted stature within the world of chestnuts, it is only natural that an annual Chestnut Festival.

Each year in late October, the villages of Collobrieres and La Garde-Freinet, hold a festival dedicated to chestnuts, which attract thousands of revellers from the department of Var, the rest of France and even further afield.

It does not take a genius to work out that during the festival; visitors can taste and buy chestnuts in almost every shape, taste and form. From traditional sweet and succulent chestnuts, lightly roasted over a flame, to chestnut cakes, paste and pies, chestnut-lovers will be in absolute heaven.

Although surely even the most fervent of chestnut enthusiast would get tired of consuming too much of this quirky delicacy?

Fear not, as other delicious delicacies, both local to the region and branching out from the rest of France and beyond, can be tasted and bought at the festival. From North African sausages to pates made in Collobrieres, visitors can enjoy tasting a dialectic mix of cuisine from around the world, all washed down with some exquisite wine.

If that hasn’t got your taste buds bursting, then perhaps the countryside Provence is blessed with will, which, in October, when the trees having turned a mesmerising hue of reds, golds and browns, the landscape is almost as warming as the delicious aroma of the chestnuts roasting away at every kiosk on the streets on these two charming villages in Var.

This year’s Chestnut Festival in the Var department will be held on Sunday, October 16.

Le Mas du Moulin, a luxury 2 bed villa in Provence (pictured above), would be the perfect base for the Chestnut festival 2011.