Lambert Coleman

Photographer I Filmmaker

A journey through village festivals – a portrait of rural France

French version here.

Every summer, the villages of Vendée come alive with fleeting celebrations of local tradition and folklore: the village festivals. In this rural Atlantic-coast department, these gatherings – which can draw thousands of visitors – honour themes as unexpected as the wheelbarrow, the horse, cow dung, or “préfou,” a local garlic bread speciality.

These celebrations, often held for decades, stage a shared history. They pass on ancestral knowledge that have since disappeared.

They are also an opportunity to take the pulse of a unique region. Once poor and agricultural, Vendée today symbolises prosperity and boasts one of the lowest unemployment rates in France. Some festivals recall the region’s Christian roots.

Its history is particularly marked by the War in the Vendée, a post-revolutionary insurrection that pitted royalist Vendéans against republicans. This uprising remains a strong component of Vendée identity.

The festivals are, in a way, the mirror of a Vendée that some would like to see immutable, with its traditional values frozen in time. Here, “benevolent patriarchy” is staged through entertaining competitions such as the fastest préfou eater, the best cow-dung thrower, or the most skilful backhoe driver.

In a France that is increasingly politically polarised, and with the rise of consumer society where everything can be bought, village festivals remain rare popular gatherings — free of charge and open to all. This is where happy rurality is put on stage.

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Préfou Festival, Aziré, Benet. Every first Sunday of July, the préfou festival is held on the port of Aziré, on the edge of the wet marshlands. Thousands of visitors attend this family event, which features a wide range of activities such as a hike through the Marais Poitevin (the second largest wetland in France), a flea market, concerts, and more.

More than 900 préfous are prepared and baked by a team of volunteers. This edition is organised by the festival committee of Sainte-Mathilde, the local private school in Benet. The highlight is the contest for the fastest préfou eater. This year’s winner ate his préfou (about 200 grams of bread and garlic butter) in 4 minutes 49, far from the record of just over 2 minutes 30.

In Vendée, the refreshment stand is an essential feature of every village festival. Here, a glass of rosé, red or white costs 50 cents of Euro. This price has remained unchanged since at least 2007.

Every two years, during Pentecost weekend, the Milling Festival takes place in the village of La Rive-d’Autize, on the edge of the Marais Poitevin. All day long, volunteers operate an old steam threshing machine to separate grain from straw. Milling refers to the process of turning wheat into flour.

More than 800 volunteers, mainly from La Rive-d’Autize, dress in period costumes to recreate a 1920s village and revive lost trades. Here, a sheep is shorn in front of a few surprised visitors.

Dozens of volunteers in costume re-enact a wedding procession, accompanied by a brass band.

The Cow-Dung Festival takes place every weekend at the end of July in Triaize, a village of 1,061 inhabitants in the dried marshes. Once one of the poorest areas of Vendée, it lacked trees, so dried dung — made from manure and water — was used for heating and cooking. For the second year in a row, a lawnmower tractor race was organised. Following the codes of major motor races, the lawnmowers compete over several laps, separated from the public by straw bales provided by a local farmer.

The most anticipated contest is the dung-throwing competition. Dried dung patties weighing between 1.2 and 1.5 kg are thrown like discs. This participant’s 16.5-metre throw earned him a place in the final. This year’s record reached 19.5 metres.

For the third year, Petosse, a village of 684 inhabitants, organises a parade of decorated trucks, preceded by a procession of vintage vehicles. Spectators cheer from both sides of the main street.

The highlight of this parade is a truck bearing a mural depicting the War in the Vendée. On its front, the painting shows hand-to-hand combat between a republican and a Vendéan. This event remains the subject of semantic battles today, with some revisionist groups demanding it be recognised as a “genocide.”

Volunteers, wearing aprons sponsored by a local masonry company, prepare fries and merguez sausages — staples of any popular gathering. One wears a cap depicting a woman’s chest with the words “Je ne pense qu’à ça” (“That’s all I think about”).

A mass is held as part of the 64th edition of the Horse Festival, organised every year in Moutiers-les-Mauxfaits. The Saint Hubert mass is celebrated by Father Verkys Nonvignon, originally from Benin, in the shade of a large holm oak in the park of the Château du Bois-Lambert.

The Wheelbarrow Festival takes place every 15 August in Saligny. After the classic wheelbarrow race, still in costume, participants take part in the “cross” — an obstacle course for pairs.

Among the other activities is a backhoe agility contest. Here, a teenager tries to push a cork into an empty wine bottle. A local earthmoving entrepreneur provided his backhoe free of charge, allowing the public to try their hand at the machine.

Finish line of the “Cross” contest. Under the blazing heat, the four finalist teams savour their arrival, marking the end of the 39th edition of the Wheelbarrow Race.