CRose10328

It looks like we will be in Paris the weekend of this festival, but I can't find anything in English. Has anyone attended? What exactly is it and where? We were planning on being in Montmartre that Sunday, the 14th anyway. Any comment?

StCirq

There are actually real-live vineyards in Montmartre that produce wine, and this is the yearly festival to celebrate the harvesting of the grapes. I haven't been to it in a dog's age, but when I was there there was a sort of street-market mentality going on with wine tastings and food stalls and music and outdoor festivities associated with the harvest.

Mara

Yes, I went three years ago - it was like StCirq said - a street fair, also a nice little parade. I thought it was fun and a taste of real Parisian life ;-) I also bought its poster which was really nice and had it framed to remind me.
Enjoy!

cigalechanta

Here's a tel. number to call if you ened to.

October

Fêtes des Vendanges (first or second Saturday) The grape harvest festival in the Montmartre vineyard, at the corner of rue des Saules and rue St-Vincent (tel 01.46.06.00.32
I've never been and would love a poster.

CRose10328

Thanks for your replies. I think it would be great to browse some food stalls, listening to music and drinking wine. How perfect is that? Get a taste of the area. If we make the parade, that would be fun too. Thanks for the phone number. I may call or maybe just look for the local tourist newspaper when we get there and see if they have any information on times and dates.

We're leave for Germany in 4 weeks and then on to Paris. I'm so excited!

CRose10328

Oh, one more thing. I couldn't find those streets on my map. Does anyone know how far they are from, say, Sacre Coeur?

Thanks.

Michel_Paris

Rue St Vincent is at the back (north side) of Sacre Coeur. If you are walking around the back of SC, it starts a smidge to the east of the church. It then heads west direction, eventually crossing r. des Saules. As a landmark, the intersection stated is very near the Musee de Montmartre.

kerouac

12-13-14 October this year.

Program in French:

Vendredi 12 : ouverture du village de stands à 9h, inauguration du village à 18h

Samedi 13 : cérémonie d’ouverture à 11h, défilé des vendanges à 15h, grande soirée musicale gratuite à 18h, feu d’artifices au jardins du Sacré Coeur à 21h30

Dimanche 14 : continuité des animations de 9h à 20h

CRose10328

Michele,thanks for the directions. I think I can find it now.

Kerouac, thanks for the information. Unfortunately I can't read or understand French. If we were to go on Sunday, what does it mean, "continuité des animations de 9h à 20h"? I guess 9 a 20h is the time but and maybe it's continue the animation, but what exactly is "animation" in French?

Cindy

cigalechanta

Your metro stop is Lamarck

kerouac

"Animation" is entertainment activities. It will be a very animated day.

Christina

It's kind of hard to translate animations, but basically it just means activities, events, lively things going on. They often may name a person in charge of animations (or anime by someone) at various things in Paris, and that will refer to the leader or host or master of ceremonies so to speak. If you look in an entertainment guide, it will list "animations/ateliers" in the childrens section, for example, and those are various kids' activities or workshops.
The program is on here:
http://www.fetedesvendangesdemontmartre.com

For sunday:
9h : Ouverture du Village, animations musicales et nombreuses animations folkloriques dans les rues.

9h / 20h : La brocante à Brassens, pour les collectionneurs et particuliers

10h / 10h30 : Lecture « La ballade des cimetières », Cimetière de Montmartre

10h30 / 12h : « Les non demandes en mariage » célébrées par Daniel Vaillant, maire du 18e, sur la place des Abbesses

12h / 16h : Apéro bal à Brassens sur le parvis du Sacré Coeur, et concerts dans les bars de Montmartre.

16h : Concert « Salut Brassens ». Autour de Joël Favreau et Jean-Jacques Franchin, de nombreux invités et amis de Brassens seront présents sur la scène de la Cigale pour un grand final !
20h : Fermeture du village

So briefly, this is:
9 h -- opening, musical and folkloric performances in the streets
10 to 10:30 -- reading of "The Ballade des Cimetieres" at Montmartre cemetery (this is a song by Brassens, I don't know if it was something before a song)
10:30 to 12 -- the major of the 18th at place des Abbesses is doing something with "les non demandes en mariage", which I thought was another Brassens song (singing it? don't know, I've read some things about a photographer being there and I think you can buy or have pictures taken)
12 to 16 h -- some drinks and dancing to Brassens on the parvis of Sacre Coeur and concerts in the bars of Montmartre (I am not actually familiar with the term apero-bal but assume it's the slang for aperitif with the dance, in any case, it's a dance)
16 h -- concert with Brassens theme, guests and friends of Brassens will be presented on the stage of the Cigale for a grand finale
The Cigale is a performance venue at 120 bd Rochechouart.

CRose10328

Christina,

Thanks for the translation. I'll print it and show it to our friends. I think we'll wander around and see what we can see. As I don't know French, we won't understand the reading and singing but the dancing will be fun to watch, and it will still be a little piece of Paris and French traditions that we could observe. And I can ALWAYS have a glass of French wine or apertif!

CRose10328

Just to follow up, I wanted to let you all know we did attend the festival and really enjoyed ourselves. We got there in time to watch part of the parade, which was fun. Different wineries seemed to be competing with their personalized entries. And then we stopped for a glass of wine at a cafe on the street and headed over to Sacre Coeur. There were booths all along the way serving wine tastings, food, sausage and sundry items. There were also bands along the way. We tried several kinds of wine and had shared a plate of food.

We ended up over at the area where they have all the artists booths for a bite to eat and then back over to the booths for more wine. I never did see any of the posters though.

I thought the fireworks were to start at 9:30 and we waited around for that, but found out they weren't going to begin until 11. By then we were all too exhausted to wait another hour and a half, so we went back to our apartment. I was a little disappointed about that, but overall it was a fun time, one of our best evenings in Paris!