Le Carnaval de Nice and la Bataille des Fleurs

Getting ready for the Bataille des Fleurs!

Mardi Gras, Fashching, Fastelvan, Karneval or Carnival, whatever you want to call it, are festivities celebrated throughout the world. In the United States some people may be familiar with Mardi Gras in Louisana, Texas or Flordia and Carnaval in Quebec.  The origins of this celebration go way back to pre-Christian cultures that celebrated the end of winter and the arrival of spring .  During this period of celebration social norms were thrown out the window, rules were allowed to be broken and people could become anything they wanted to be with masks and disguises - a complete reversal social roles.  People would eat and drink to prepare for the hard months where there food would be less abundant until the new spring harvests. 

This is part of the night time parade
 Corso Carnavalesque Iluminé

The end of winter celebrations continued with the advent of Christianity.  At first, these pagan festivities were not accepted by the Christian customs. Eventually, the Church realized that they could not stop the celebrations and with some adaptations, they were accepted as part of the Catholic liturgy. Carnival/Mardi Gras is often celebrated in the weeks prior to Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent.  Since Lent is a time when people would often fast and give up meat, people would "go wild" and stock up for the 40 days of Lent. Today there are many people who celebrate Carnival without realizing the historic origins to pagan rituals or to Christianity.  

OK, enough history!

This float is paraded at night.  Watch the official video to see both parades - click here

February 13 was the first day of the Nice Carnival and we decided to go to the Bataille des Fleurs (battle of flowers) parade.  I have never been to Nice, and knowing that it is about two hours away, we left early in the morning to make sure we could find parking.  I followed the advice on the Nice website and we parked for free in a garage on the outside of the town.  The tram station was attached to to the garage and it took us to the parade area in 15 minutes - No headache!!! I decided to buy seats in the viewing stands because I had no idea how long we would be standing there and hey, as my mom would say, "you only come 'round this way once".  

This year's theme is the Roi des Medias (King of Media) and all the flower floats had some sort of media theme (film, newspaper, magazines).  The floats were beautiful! The parade route is circular and as the floats passed by, float attendants threw out sprigs of yellow flowers.  After the first three laps, the attendants and other helpers started taking the flowers from the floats and throwing them to the crowds. People were screaming and waving for roses, birds of paradise, tulips, orchids and other flowers.  Since we had first row seats, we ended up with a huge bouquet of fragrant flowers.  
 

In between the floats were different groups of musicians, dancers, acrobats and people in wild costumes.  Sometimes they stopped in front of our stand and dance, sang or egged the crowd on.  One guy stole several children from the stands, danced with them and gave them back to their parents.  Some performers had streamers, others had confetti but all wanted crowd participation.

These people covered us in streamers!

The guy took the kid out of the stands, danced and handed him back to his family!

After the parade we escaped all the streamers, gathered our flowers and walked in the crowds toward the tram.  The wind was blowing and the waves on the beach were big.  We had such a fun time watching the parade!

Ben and Jen being swallowed up by the flowers!

Big waves

In order to get back to the car we had to walk past the parade grounds for the evening event.  The King and Queen floats were there as well and the stands ready to hold thousands of people.  I am happy that we decided to go to the Flower parade.  I know I will go back to Nice soon to visit the beach, museums and beautiful sites.

View of parade grounds

Good night Nice!