France

For what really makes a festival is this welcoming and open outlook with which we welcome you each day. Start wherever you like. In every town and city you will find celebrations at Christmas, main summer festivals and winter carnivals. All over you will find the spirit of Nativity tableaux, music festivals, habanera singing, improvised sardanas danced on the village squares, Carnival floats and parades and Holy Week processions. Spring festivals, popular and traditional dances alternate with international music festivals and parades of"giants". Festivals of troubadours and displays of craft work blend in with pilgrim rituals and maritime processions. Here the Dance of Death, there a Firework Competition. Here an open-air rice party, there a shepherds' festival. Here the suquetfish stew day, there the sea urchin festival, and so on and so forth in an endless list of village festivals and festivities. Just go to your nearest tourist office and ask for the printed calendar of events and get more fun out of your stay with us. Of special interest are the events declared of national interest, such as: Les Enramades or floral carpet festival in Arbucies, the Plantada de I'Arbre del Maig and Ball del Cornut festival in Cornelia del Terri on Easter Monday: the living Way of the Cross in Sant Hilari Sacalm on Good Friday; the Dance of Death in Verges on Holy Thursday; the Virgin of Tura festival in Olot on 8 September; Nativity plays and tableaux in December, and the Hobby Horse dance in Sant Feliu de Pallerols on Pentecost Sunday and Monday.