Medieval Fairs

Walk the narrow, cobblestoned streets of the town of Le Puy-en-Velay in mid-September, and you'll swear you are in 16th-century France (if you ignore the cigarettes and cellphones). Aristocrats in fur-lined velvet cloaks stroll alongside peasants in plain tunics leading donkeys, jugglers perform, and vendors hawk meat pies.

Lulworth Castle is a gem though, with round towers at each corner, every child's picturebook vision, and the Festival was arranged to take full advantage of this with the Arena right in front of the main entrance. I had rented a holiday cottage in the village for the weekend, and arrived on the Friday afternoon.

According to the Catalan historian, Joan Amades, the walls of Montblanc are the origin of Catalonia's most famous legend Sant Jordi, celebrated throughout Catalunya on the 23rd of April.

Barcelona simmers in June day time heat as the refreshing evenings grow steadily longer. Firecrackers left by teenagers in street rubbish bins explode late at night, reminding us that the longest day of the year celebrated on the eve of Sant Joan, the 23rd of June, is only just round the corner.

Fayre opened with a ground-shaking explosion as the gunners from the Compagnie of Saynte Barbara fired their fearsome one-and-a-half tonne siege engine, the Bombard, to let people know that the programme of demonstrations and displays was about to begin

Brussels' Grand Place is packed with spectators, including the Royal Family and their guests, for the annual Ommegang, or 'walk about' in Dutch, the major annual event in the city since 1549. Although historians believe it began as a religious ritual in the 14th Century, the huge parade and festival is now devoid of religious connotations and focuses on local folklore and heritage.

Let those who have no light in themselves light candles!' thundered the great Roman Tertullian. 'Let those over whom Hell fire is hanging, fix to their doors laurels doomed presently to burn. You are the light of the world, you are the tree ever green...make not your own house a temple.' Like the Puritans in later centuries, Tertullian urged the people to stop their so-called 'pagan' festivities at Christmas time.