Monday, February 28, 2011

Bataille de Fleurs

Carnival was crazy. Crazy people, crazy floats, and crazy long parades. Nice is very proud of their carnival which has been an annual celebration since 1924. It lasts for 2 weeks and ends with Mardi Gras Tuesday. Nice is also famous for its beautiful flowers. There are two parades: the Flower Battle Parade and the Carnival Night Parade. I posted some pictures of the opening ceremonies where the Roi of the Mediterranean was presented.  There was silly string and streamers and confetti EVERYWHERE. I felt so bad for whoever had to clean up afterwards. Everywhere you walked you could see bits of tiny paper. The floats are pretty dang cool and weird at the same time (you'll see what I mean soon). Plus they are recyclable (too bad all the confetti and steamers aren't). 



King of the Mediterranean with his chariot pulled by seahorses.



This is supposedly the Queen. She looks like the Devil; her eyes are freaky. Interesting how she's wearing a cross around her neck...






 Silly string fight




The Flower Battle parade is literally a battle. The flower floats throw flowers to the crowd who then push and shove to catch them. It was insane but actually really fun.  Kyle fought his way through that crowd and caught me some beautiful flowers! I approve of  the flower idea because it is tooth-friendly (as opposed to the candy in our local summer parades). This event was our favorite part of the Carnival. It was on the promenade des anglais and when you turned around, the sea was right there! It as gorgeous!






A policeman who just got wasted by streamer blasters. Awesome. 



This group is from Bolivia. I only know that because I saw them in a Parade in Bolivia when I went there with my dad 12 years ago.





Loved the streamers. Creepy man.










I wasn't joking about all the confetti. This is really what the streets look like. It's basically a huge street party everywhere you go.

1 comment:

  1. This is SO cool!! What an awesome opportunity that you got to experience this!

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