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Saint Valentine's Day in France/Le jour de la Saint-Valentin During the Middle Ages, the French believed that birds began to mate mid February. For this reason lovers exchanged tokens of love on 14 February, the saint’s day. People in France once had a Valentine's Day custom of ‘une loterie d'amour’ (drawing for) where single people called out from their windows to pair off. A bonfire was lit at the end of the day where ladies burned images of the lovers who left them during the day and hurl abuse at them. The practice was eventually banned by the state. The first Valentine's Day card (carte d'amities) is said to have been written by the young Duke of Orleans to his wife from his imprisonment in the Tower of London. Religious pilgrims travel to the pretty Indre village of St Valentin, which is named after the saint, on the day. |
