Carnavale 2014 in Nice, France

This is part of 4 posts on Nice, Monaco, Carnavale and Antibes and Cannes. 

• All about Nice, France. Check it out...! 
• If you want to read about Carnavale...check it out below. 
• My tiny country profile of Monaco is here: Check it out...!
• Antibes and Cannes is where I fell in love with yachts. Check it out... !

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This trip has been full of firsts for me, including my first experience of Carnavale!  I've not been to New Orleans for Mardi Gras, nor any of the main Carnavale hot spots in Europe or South America. I have a friend, Charis, who actually attended Carnavale in Trinidad and Tobago and danced her little heart out down the parade route. She was even in full dress...which in Trinidad means a bikini and a huge headdress.  She looked amazing and said it was the time of her life. I thought that might be one of the most unique life experiences ever.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of crowds.  As I get older, I like crowds less and less. I love music, for example, but nothing sounds worse to me than a music festival with 50,000 people.  Nothing.  I don't care if all of my favorite bands are there...I don't like how people behave in crowds, I don't like people in my personal space (more on that in a future post!) and I don't really like being surrounded by drunk people or drugged out people, like when I went to Winter Music Fest in Miami, EDM music fest.  I tend to like my concerts in small to medium venues...even big shows in arens (like Phillips Arena in Atlanta) are sometimes too big for my liking.  I'll go if the artist is epic enough (I saw Madonna at Phillips), but I'd prefer something smaller.

So...long story short, Carnavale just wasn't on my radar of things to do.  But we're in Europe during Carnavale and our visit to Nice falls directly in the celebration.  So, after dinner one night, we headed out to the Promenade and watched the parade.

The theme was something to do with food.  Again, I don't understand much about Carnavale, but some of the stuff was a bit scary. I don't know why, but the masks and floats often had a frightened or frightening expression.

Take for example, these terrified super tall chefs.

But then there were these friendly Chinese and Buddha head chefs...

And the Hot Chocolate Army...

Cake pops and popsicles....

A clown on a bicycle tricked out with candy...

This crazy, over gesticulating Tutti Fruitti lady... (and my adorable mom in front!)

These guys holding cheese....

And then this float of a dinner table, with this old man hiding underneath...

The most advanced thing we saw was a huge, mechanical dragon. It breathed actual fire, drooled and poured smoke.  The huge head and neck moved up and down from street level to 20 or 30 feet in the air. It was amazing!


As he was lining up to take this photo, the dragon swung around and scared the bejeesus out of my dad.

But I still got the shot....

And I was able to jump in with my mom for a quick one too, before it went back up high into the air.

And finally, I particularly liked this crazy, multi-armed chef with the angry face. Great opportunity for a family selfie!

Lastly, one of our favorite things was walking around the city and happening upon impromptu marching bands playing music.  It was such fun and they really got the crowd into it.

All in all, Carnavale was not what I expected...it was fun, over the top and supremely entertaining.  I was grateful for a smaller-than-normal crowd that allowed me to enjoy the festivities without being completed mobbed and overwhelmed by them!