Concours des villes et villages fleuris

Sign in Le Vésinet, Yvelines (4 flowers)
Aix-les-Bains in Savoie, which was awarded 4 flowers, also gained its second Golden Flower in 2017.
Road sign in Saint-Privé, Yonne (2 flowers)
Flowered structures in front of Notre Dame church in Libercourt (3 flowers).

The Concours des villes et villages fleuris (English: 'Competition of cities and villages in bloom') is an annual French contest. It aims to encourage communes to adopt and implement policies improving the quality of life of their inhabitants and enhancing their attractiveness to visitors through the provision and maintenance of green spaces and the enhancement of their natural environments. Successful communes are awarded the right to display a badge (one to four flowers) on road signs and in other local promotional material.

The competition was created in 1959 by the French state and it is administered by a distinct national committee since 1972. This committee is still linked to the Ministry of Tourism. All the French communes can take part and there are no application fees. There is not any limitation to the number of awarded communes, so they are not in competition between each other.

The label comprises four awards: one, two, three or four flowers, according to the efforts of the municipality. Each award is given according to strict criteria. The Fleur d'Or (Golden Flower) is a special prize awarded to a small number of applicants. Awarded communes display their flowers on road signs at their entrances. There are 4,931 awarded cities, towns and villages (2018). 257 of them have four flowers.[1]

  1. ^ "Les villes et villages fleuris". Archived from the original on 2015-06-26.