Vallabrègues Basket Festival

There were baskets everywhere you looked- a true weaver's paradise- I was completely in love with Vallabrègues from the moment I arrived!

The entire village seems to participate in the festivities, just based on the sheer numbers of people in parade, which kicks off the festival. I heard that the villagers spent the weeks leading up to the festival creating their own period costumes to wear in the parade. I broke the parade up into several short videos for easier viewing, but also because there were minutes-long pauses while waiting for groups to catch up.

The parade kicked off with a band followed by a carriage full of elegantly dressed ladies.

Next came (my personal heroes!) the representatives of the Confreríe des Faconneurs du Noble Osier (Brotherhood of the Noble Wicker Makers), the National Basketry Guild of France.

A cartful of basket willow came next, more baskets and some girls washing sheets. THEN! More basket carts and a giant woven basket weaver making a giant willow basket!

A tiny band followed by more villagers in period dress, horse (and donkey) drawn carriages and carts and more basket willow.

Next up, two little girls carried in the banner of the next group which included a woven effigy of a woman in period costume (on wheels for ease of transport), followed by more villagers in period dress, babies, and baskets- oh my!

More carts full of baskets, another band, more villagers in costume, and more basket carts.

More willow! More baskets!

Another band, and a gentleman I came to think of as the Mayor (whether he was or not) riding through on a bicycle.

The final band, more carts of baskets and willow and villagers with farming implements.

Horse-drawn cart of fishing nets and baskets, followed by villagers carrying various fishing and hunting equipment made from willow.

The piece(s) de resistance! Three huge horse-drawn carts loaded with hundred and hundreds of willow baskets! So many baskets! So cool to see them piled so high.

The end of the parade was a traditional weaving hut on a cart, a larger one was on display at the festival grounds and you could enter it and see how the ancient people of the region lived and worked.

Some still shots from the parade.

Vallabrègues is a tiny adorable village about half an hour south of Avignon in Provence, France. Its narrow streets and alleys meander among towering plane trees, and the quaint historic buildings are covered in oleander and flowering vines.

I think I could have wandered the narrow streets of this incredibly charming, sleepy little village for days, exploring every nook and cranny, but I had a basket festival to get to!

(Apologies in advance for what appears to be a hair directly in front of the lens of the camera.)

After the parade, the festival was officially open!

The entrance of the festival grounds opened onto a large courtyard, full of baskets hanging from trees (and used as trash receptacles!), a lifesize woven hut (like the one in the parade) set up as if it were living quarters for a family, several tiny food trucks, and the festival entrance.

These antique posters lined the walls of the entry gate. I love old photos and was super stoked to see these, but the written descriptions left a lot of questions. Perhaps a translation error, but single-use baskets? I don't think so. And their benches were situated in humid places?? I'm not sure that the captions were written by people who actually know anything about basketry, but the photos are great regardless.

"Scraping and splitting Provençal canes. This operation allowed them to be combined with raw wicker to produce large quantities of single-use basketwork."

"Basket weaver at work. Each basket weaver had his workbench in a humid place in order to preserve the suppleness of the wicker for as long as possible."

"Peeling the osier. The scalers cracked the bark using snuffers. The pluckers finished removing it."

"Back to the village. The wicker loaded onto carts was brought back to the manufacturing workshops."

A short line and 3 € later, and I WAS IN!!!

I heard about this festival about 20 years ago and have wanted to go ever since.  This year, I finally got a chance to go, and it was more amazing than I had even hoped!

Driving into town, I was so excited, and I saw this banner and had to immediately pull over and get a picture of it. But, I was in no way prepared for just how charming the village itself is, or how incredible the festival would be. It was truly a dream come true experience!

Vallabrègues, France

There were so many baskets, my head was swimming. Almost all were willow, with exceptions being some of the sewing baskets were pretty fine (#2 or smaller) round reed, and one lady who coiled with iris leaves. The selection ran the gamut from extremely traditional market baskets to full-on sculptural art. But the quality was all top notch.

In Europe, they take basketry seriously. Much more than they do in the US. There are local and even national guilds. They are respected and important parts of the community. The French Guild, Confreríe des Faconneurs du Noble Osier, is no different. And, I love them so much. Very few spoke English so we couldn't talk much, but they were so enthusiastic and fun, and I want to join their guild SO BAD!!!

And, because it is France, the food court was spectacular. several very tiny food trucks encircling a giant arboretum of plane trees, REAL tables and chairs, REAL dishes and silverware, a dishwashing station, and actual real live willow baskets used for trash and recycling! Not to be missed!

Dish washing station for real dishes used in the food trucks AND actual baskets for trash disposal and recycling!

I wasn't able to take many baskets home with me in my limited luggage, but I got a few treasures that I love. I had the best time in Vallabrégues, the festival was amazing and I can't wait to go back again someday, but with more luggage space next time!

I was absolutely smitten with this mural that takes up about a block of wall space near the festival grounds.