The Marquis de Lafayette will be surrounded by a profusion of pink and blue blossoms when the 10th Annual Hydrangea Festival blooms on LaGrange Square in the heart of LaGrange, Georgia, on June 10-13, 2010. Well, Road Trips Gardeners, the flowers do surround not the actual marquis, but a statue of the French nobleman who fought with the Americans during the Revolution!

The festival includes an old-fashioned garden party, a “Picnic with the Pops” concert, a Parisian Marketplace, private garden tours, musical entertainment and a family bike ride. The fun kicks off on Thursday (June 10) when 1,600 visitors peddle into town as part of the Bicycle Riders Across Georgia’s annual trek and are met with entertainment and the debut of Fifi, the French skunk – mascot of the Hydrangea Festival.

The old-fashioned garden party and wine tasting takes place from 6 to 9 p.m. on Friday (June 11) at Ferrell Gardens. This historic pre-Civil War garden surrounds Hills & Dales Estate, the classically designed Georgian Italian villa and formal gardens that is the ancestral home of the Callaway family. Tickets are $50 per person.

Enjoy chicory coffee and French fritters known as beignets from 7 to 10 a.m. Saturday morning (June 12) on Lafayette Plaza, overlooking the hydrangea-filled square. At 10 a.m., the Parisian Marketplace opens on the square.

On Saturday evening (June 12), “Picnic with the Pops” unfolds at the foot of Callaway Memorial Tower on Fourth Avenue. Picnickers will enjoy their supper from the highest point in the city as the LaGrange Symphony Orchestra performs in the shadow of the tower, built in 1929 and patterned after the Campanile of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice.

For more on the area, go online.

(Photo courtesy of the LaGrange-Troup County Chamber of Commerce)