July 25th, 2026

Welcome to our Second Annual Festival of Correspondence brought to you by Letters Trellis at the Winchester Farmers Market.

This initiative echoes an annual event in honor of Madame de Sévigné, a celebrated French letter writer of the seventeenth century.  Each summer her legacy is remembered in a week-long festival in Grignan, France, where she addressed hundreds of letters to her daughter.  These missives are but a part of the volumes of her epistolary writings that have been collected and published.  

Grignan is a medieval village situated in the Drôme department of southeastern France centered by a grand chateau.  Throughout the encircling streets of this structure and neighboring villages are some 24 writing areas (chambres d’écriture) furnished with writing paper, envelopes, pen and ink.  Visitors are invited to write a letter to be stamped and posted as a service to festival attendees.  

The “Festival de la Correspondance de Grignan” was begun in 1996 and this year marked an anniversary of 30 years.  In addition, it was the 400th anniversary of the birth of Madame de Sévigné.  The program has featured the collected letters of notable personalities, with lectures, art, music, theatre, and films on a variety of themes.  Past themes have included Letters in Exile, Family Letters, Letters from Belgium, Letters in one’s Youth, Letters of Love and Hate, Letters from our Heroes, and In Search of Meaning and the Sacred. 

Letters Trellis also selects a theme each month.  This July we present a unique opportunity for you to bring back the art of written correspondence by taking a seat with pen and paper to write a letter to a loved one or friend.  

Stop by to see materials from the festival in France and to join the effort to keep the art of correspondence alive with your participation.  As always, we provide everything you need (including postage!) at no cost to you.

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