On 24 and 25 October 2026, the festivals and events of Occitanie take in Cajarc, which celebrates Quercy saffron, Perpignan's Foire Saint-Martin and the chestnut fairs.
Saturday, in the Lot valley. In Cajarc, the saffron festival opens on 24 October 2026 in the town centre. On 24 and 25 October 2026, the festivals and events of Occitanie take in Cajarc, which celebrates Quercy saffron, Perpignan's Foire Saint-Martin and the chestnut fairs.
The red gold of Cajarc
On the weekend of 24-25/10, the Fête du Safran du Quercy fills rue de la Cascade and the neighbouring streets, Saturday and Sunday from 10 am to 6:30 pm. Entry is free. Cajarc has been a Site Remarquable du Goût since 2011, and the association Les Safraniers du Quercy, which brings together nearly 80 growers, has run the festival since 1998.
Saffron field visits leave the tourist office at 10:30 am, on Saturday and Sunday. About fifty growers and craftspeople run the market: saffron, honey, jams, Lot wines. Demonstrations of flower trimming, talks on the history of the spice, saffron cooking by local chefs, the Cajarc banda. It takes about 200,000 flowers to make one kilo of dry saffron.
The Sunday noon banquet gathers some 250 guests.
The menu is all saffron: soup, pigs' trotters with mash, local cheese, dessert. The price is around 20 euros a head, and booking with the tourist office is compulsory.
Perpignan's fair, Florac's soup, Montpellier's cinema
On 24 October, Perpignan opens the Foire Saint-Martin on the car park of the Palais des Expositions, for four weeks. Created in 1759, it lines up between 120 and 150 rides and attractions, Ferris wheel included, from 2 pm. Entry to the site is free, and each ride is paid for separately.
Florac-Trois-Rivières, in Lozère, closes its Soup Festival on Saturday. It is free and dates from 2001. A soup contest, brass-band aperitifs, a farmers' market and street shows share the town-centre lanes.
The Cinemed ends on Saturday in Montpellier. About 200 films are screened, mostly at the Corum, for 90,000 spectators every October, and the Antigone d'Or is its top prize. In Port-Leucate, in the Aude, Voix d'Etoiles devotes its last days to the voices of animated cinema: screenings, meetings, workshops, at the Espace Henry de Monfreid and the Clap Ciné.
Concerts, dance shows, masterclasses and a Sevillian ball: Alba Flamenca runs until Sunday 25 October in Lagrasse, in the Corbières of the Aude.
On Sunday, Thégra, in the Lot, devotes its Fête de la Noix to the Périgord walnut. Some sixty exhibitors fill the village, the oil mill runs all day, the giant cake comes out at 11:30 am and the walnut dessert contest takes the afternoon. The prize-giving closes the day around 5:30 pm.