France has everything you could wish to see on your vacation: a big city like Paris, great beaches, beautiful weather, more monuments than any other country, enchanting nature and incredible mountain scenery, and the best wines in the world. No wonder France is the most visited country in Europe…
In addition, France is a perfect place to visit throughout the year. Book a flight and don’t plan anything else. As car rental is very cheap in France, simply rent a car at the airport and take a road trip to learn more about this beautiful country.
The trip to France in April can also be very interesting as many interesting events take place in this month, which are suitable for the whole family…
Just a few hours drive from Paris, there is a very nice place to stay, Nontron. Nontron is a municipality in the Dordogne, in the southwest of France, it is an ideal place to stay in the beautiful region of Aquitaine. It is a typically medieval French town and has all the character you would expect from this rich and green area of France. A town that rests on the sides of the valley surrounded by forests and long open fields as far as the eye can see.
At the beginning of April, the townspeople of Nontron celebrate the ‘Festival of Bellows’ (le Carnaval des Soufflets) by dressing up in nightgowns, cotton hats, clogs, masks, and last but not least, wearing the largest bellows. important. The tradition dates back to the carnival celebrations of the Middle Ages, when the people of Nontron used their bellows to purify the city’s air and rid it of evil spirits, wherever they hid (even under women’s skirts!) ! It is said that it was the monks of the nearby Abbey of Saint Sauveur who started the tradition on Ash Wednesday to enter Lent in a state of purity. So since then, every year, many visitors with the Nontron townspeople use bellows to inflate their nightgowns in hopes of driving away all evil spirits.
After the festival, you can go for a walk to La Rochelle, which is only a 2-hour drive from Nontron. It is a city in southwestern France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. An ancient city with its sights set on the future, La Rochelle is a beautiful and generous city that manages to preserve exceptional natural and architectural values while developing its own territory in an innovative, sensitive and harmonious way.
In short, it’s a very easy option, so book a flight and explore France in more detail.