Chrysanthemums by the Million: The Flower Markets of La Toussaint
In the last days of October, the flower stalls of France turn gold, rust and deep burgundy. Pots of chrysanthemums appear in their thousands — outside florists, spilling from supermarket entrances, stacked at garden centres across the country — because in France the chrysanthemum belongs to the graveside, not the dinner table. More than 25 million potted chrysanthemums are bought nationwide for this single occasion. If you want to understand La Toussaint before you understand anything else about it, start here: walk a French market in the final week of October, watch families choose their pots with the same seriousness they'd bring to choosing wine, and buy nothing for a French friend's mantelpiece. The flower is for the dead. Knowing that is the beginning of the visit.
1 November: A Public Holiday Built Around the Cemetery
La Toussaint falls on 1 November and is a public holiday across France. All Souls' Day, 2 November, is the day the Church technically sets aside for remembering the dead — but it is not a holiday, so French families make their cemetery visits on 1 November instead. The rhythm of the country changes accordingly: shops and offices close, and the traffic of the day runs toward the cemeteries rather than the centre.
- Go to a cemetery on the morning of 1 November. This is the central act of the day, and it is observed across France. You will see families arriving with potted chrysanthemums and setting them on family graves.
- Watch for candles. One of the circulating explanations for the chrysanthemum custom is that the flowers replaced candles formerly lit on graves — a practice said to date from the mid-nineteenth century.
- Understand the choice of flower. Another account traces the tradition to the first anniversary of the end of the First World War, when President Raymond Poincaré and the government asked the French people to place flowers in cemeteries in memory of soldiers; chrysanthemums were chosen for their late flowering and frost resistance. These explanations are told as stories rather than settled history — treat them as part of the folklore you'll hear, not as a fixed record.
- Bring your own pot if you intend to place one. The flowers are everywhere in the days before; the gesture is the point.
Halloween, French-Sized
Halloween is celebrated in France, but on a much smaller scale than in the UK or the United States. It is growing in popularity, and Halloween-themed chocolates and decorations are widely sold in the run-up — you will see them in the same shops that are stacking chrysanthemums. If you are in France over 31 October, expect a modest, commercial, mostly indoors affair rather than a street-wide carnival. La Toussaint, by contrast, is the far bigger occasion, and it is the one that shapes how the country behaves.
What to Eat While the Country Slows Down
The food story of this period is the market, not the restaurant. Because 1 November is a public holiday, plan your eating around the days either side of it.
- Shop the markets in the last week of October. This is when the flower trade is at its height and the ordinary food stalls are still running their usual business.
- Buy for a picnic or an in-room meal on 1 November itself. With the holiday closing shops, the practical move is to provision the day before.
- Skip the chrysanthemum as a host gift. It is strongly associated with gravesides and death in France and is considered inappropriate to give to French friends or hosts. Choose something else entirely.
Building Your Trip Around the Customs
Build your days around the ordinary life of the country in late October, let 1 November be quiet and cemetery-facing, and treat the days around it as your window for markets and meals. There is no published programme of concerts, parades or civic events for this period that you can plan around in advance; plan around the customs, which repeat every year with great reliability.
Book your travel for the final days of October, so that you arrive before the flower stalls are stripped and while the country is still moving at its normal pace. Give yourself 31 October for Halloween's small commercial pleasures, 1 November for the cemeteries and the chrysanthemums, and the days on either side for the markets. That is La Toussaint in France — not a festival staged for visitors, but a holiday the country keeps for itself, and one you can stand inside if you arrive with the right expectations and a pot of flowers in your hands.