Since 1999, the Castagnades have been the chestnut festival of the Ardèche!
Discover the villages of the Cévenne ardéchoise, from festivals to events, with the thousand-year-old fruit of the breadfruit tree as your gourmet guide.
Castagnades in the Ardèche?
A unique programme of festivities, tastings, discovery workshops and a host ofevents on the theme of castaneiculture and its famous fruit, the chestnut.
The Ardèche castagnades take place in autumn, between October and November, during the harvest period.
Did you say castagnades? The word comes from the Occitan language to describe the gathering of chestnuts, and of course eating them after cooking. With the creation of the Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park, it has become the emblem of celebrations around the fruit of the breadfruit tree.
Les castagnades 2025
For the 26th edition of the chestnut festival, discover the castagnades programme from 11 October to 9 November in the towns and villages of the Ardèche castaneiculture region.
Dates by town and village in Ardèche
Saint-Pierreville, Meyras, Privas, Joyeuse, Désaignes, Saint-Laurent-les-Bains, Laval-d’Aurelle, Antraïgues, Saint-André-Lachamp, Chalencon, Vesseaux, Joannas…
So many towns and villages to discover:
The programme
Extracted from the official presentation, here is the detailed programme of the year’s castagnades for each commune:
Chestnuts?
An ancestral crop, the chestnut is a flagship fruit in the Ardèche, with its many chestnut groves in the Cévenne ardéchoise, where chestnut trees are slowly regaining ground on the terraces.
To find out more about the chestnut, the thousand-year-old tree and its fruit with a thousand recipes:
- Chestnuts, the fruit of the breadfruit tree in the Ardèche :
Video report
Presentation of the chestnut, its production chain and processing in Ardèche with Télématin (2018) :
Everything you need to know about chestnuts in the Ardèche?
Co-published by the Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park and the Châtaigne d’Ardèche PDO, this guide to the castaneiculture provides information in just a few pages, including a table of contents:Co-published by the Monts d’Ardèche Regional Nature Park and the Châtaigne d’Ardèche PDO, this guide to the castaneiculture provides information in just a few pages, including a table of contents:
- Chestnuts through the seasons
- Botany and varieties
- History of chestnut growing in the Ardèche
- The chestnut tree, a resource for the Ardèche economy
- Forestry
- Preparing and cooking it
- A few recipes for your plate
Existential question made in Ardèche
By the way, do you know the difference between a chestnut and a marron?
“Chestnuts are the fruit of the chestnut tree (Castanea sativa), a member of the same family as oaks and beeches. Horse chestnuts, on the other hand, are the seeds of the only horse chestnut tree in France (Aesculus hippocastanum), and are poisonous. Although the fruits are similar, the leaves, flowers and buds are different”.
Extract from Futura Sciences
And to help you distinguish between the edible chestnut and the poisonous chestnut, here’s an infographic from the French National Health and Safety Agency (ANSES):
Official Castagnades website
For a detailed programme of events and other practical information, visit the official website:
There’s also the theme of artistic creation in the Castanea region, with this year’s theme being games.
Find out more about chestnuts?
- Chestnuts, the fruit of the breadfruit tree in the Ardèche
- Chestnut fruit, Wikipedia