Arpheuilles Tomato Festival

A Tradition of Almost a Century and a Half

The Arpheuilles Tomato Festival is one of the oldest horticultural fairs in Berry. For nearly 150 years, every May 14th, this small village in the Indre region, located near Châtillon-sur-Indre, hosts a fair dedicated to tomato plants and market gardening crops. This date traditionally corresponds to the ideal time to plant tomatoes after the last frosts, once the famous Saints of Ice have passed.

An Unmissable Plant Market

The heart of the event is the plant market held on the town hall square and in the village streets. Nursery owners, local market gardeners, and amateur gardeners come to offer or purchase a wide variety of plants:

• Tomato plants of many old and modern varieties
• Vegetable plants: peppers, eggplants, zucchini, squash, lettuce, and herbs
• Flower plants to brighten gardens and balconies

Gardeners from all over the region come to stock up for the season, exchanging advice and tips with exhibitors in a friendly and good-natured atmosphere.

A Traditional Meal at the Village Hall

The plant fair ends in the late morning and continues with a traditional meal served at the village hall. The emblematic dish of this lunch is calf's head, a culinary specialty served with gribiche sauce. This convivial meal brings together villagers and visitors around large tables, in the purest tradition of rural festivals in Berry.

Arpheuilles, a Village of Character

Arpheuilles is a small rural commune in the north of the Indre region, part of the canton of Châtillon-sur-Indre. The village is surrounded by fertile agricultural land, ideal for market gardening and livestock farming. The Tomato Festival perfectly illustrates the attachment of its inhabitants to the land and agricultural traditions that have shaped life in Berry for generations.

The commune also houses the Ferme des Pensières, a farm open to the public, demonstrating the vitality of rural life in this part of the Indre region.