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| Sunrise on the Harbor! |
Soon after we arrived in the Nice area we went to a small local grocery store. We bought a few items so we could prepare some meals at the condo where we are staying. It has a nice terrace and we were able to eat outside, although once the sun went down it got a little chilly.
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| Dinner on terrace |
Around 9:30 we headed out for the day. Our destination was the Promenade du Paillon in the Nice city center. This is the site of what has been recognized as one of the top Carnival Celebrations in the world. There are eleven different parades over a fifteen day period. Some are during the day, while others are at night. The night one's don't start until 9:00 PM, which is pretty close to bedtime for us. Thankfully today's parade started at 2:30 in the afternoon!
This is actually the second time we've been in Nice during Carnival, although neither time was planned. The first was a few years back when we were here for one day while on a cruise. There were no parades that day, but we did get to see some of the floats used in the night parade. They remain staged in the area throughout the festival. This time we realized that it was Carnival only after we had purchased our air tickets to France.
We walked the four miles from the condo in Villefranche-sur-Mer. The first part of the walk was from high up which gave us great panoramic views of the clear blue waters of the Mediterranean Sea. The walk then goes down a long staircase that has a couple of switchbacks thrown in just for fun, before ending up along the waterfront. We passed the harbor where multiple, massive yachts are made to look tiny beside the superyacht Quantum Blue. This yacht is owned by Sergey Galitsky, a billionaire from Russia who is the co-owner of the largest retail chain in Russia. I guess this makes him the Sam Walton of Russia His net worth is listed at over three billion dollars and the price tag on the yacht is shown as a whopping 250 million (no, that's not a typo). I guess capitalism is alive and well in Russia!
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| The view from the walking path down to Villefranche-sur-Mur |
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| The view looking down into Nice |
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| That's a 250 million dollar yacht in the background |
Just past the harbor is the Promenade des Anglais, which is an incredibly nice pedestrian path overlooking the rocky beach and sea. The Carnival de Nice parades take place in the area where this promenade and the Promenade du Paillon intersect.
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| Overlooking the beach and promenade |
As planned, we got there a few hours early to give us some time to look around the old town section of Nice and get a bite to eat. It also gave us time to ride the large Ferris Wheel that is located in the parade area. After the Ferris Wheel ride and while we were walking in old town we saw a small street food restaurant with a long line of locals. A line and locals...........we quickly figured that was the place to eat. Trusting our instincts paid off in a big way. It was tasty, filling and inexpensive...…...the holy trinity of eating out!
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| Happiness is riding the Ferris Wheel in Nice! |
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Daube (stew meat) and polenta in the middle
Les Petits Farcis (vegetables stuffed with ground meat, garlic and breadcrumbs) on the left and beignets on the right.
The name of the restaurant was Lou Pilha Leva
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The parade itself is held in an area with very tight security. Unfortunately, France suffered from several very tragic terrorist attacks a few years back, and like major cities around the world they have enhanced their security efforts tremendously.
Once inside the parade grounds, and seated in one the four grandstands, the party kicked off pretty quickly. First with pre-parade festivities that included a rotund, overzealous announcer riding around on a Segway imploring the crowd to stand, wave, sway, cheer, make heart shaped hand gestures and a variety of other things. Next there was a troupe of young people dancing, doing acrobats and imploring the crowd to stand, wave, cheer, and sway. To their credit, I don't remember them imploring us to make heart shaped hand gestures.
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| Pre-parade festivities.....in between standing, swaying, cheering, etc. |
I have to confess that I've never been much of a parade guy, but I've never attended one as large and grandiose as this one. The title of the parade was Bataille de Fluers (Battle of the Flowers). All the floats were covered with flowers of every color imaginable. Additionally, there were literally tons of colorful streamers and confetti being shot and thrown, by both participants and audience members.
It was really a fun hour and a half of soaking up the Carnival de Nice spirit. The most interesting thing occurs at the end of the parade. The floats make a second pass by the grandstands and the flowers are pulled off and thrown to the audience. We were sitting up pretty high and some of the ushers would bring flowers up and throw them to us. The folks sitting down low were the ones that really brought home the motherlode of flowers. As we were leaving we saw quite a few of these people leaving with more flowers than you'd see at a wedding or funeral.
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| This was once a colorful float. The flowers are being taken off and thrown to the crowd |
There was plenty of sunshine left in the day, so instead of taking the bus back to the condo as we had intended ,we enjoyed a leisurely walk back, retracing our steps from earlier in the day. We were back in time to enjoy sunset...………………. Happy brains filled with colorful memories and tired feet ready for a rest!
A few suggestions on the parade:
You can buy tickets in advance online. This is what we did. There were a few empty seats in the grandstands of yesterdays parade, but it was a mid-week parade. I think the night and weekend parades are the most popular.
There are options to buy "standing room" tickets or grandstand tickets. The prices vary by the parade, we paid $26 euros each (approx. $30 dollars) for grandstand tickets. The "standing room" tickets are around half as much. Having a seat was well worth the money for us.
There are security lines but they seemed to move pretty quickly. The screening is similar to going to a major sporting event or concert. Scanners are used and all bags are inspected.
Although we didn't, it looked as if you can bring food and beverages into the parade grounds. There were a few concessions inside where you could buy drinks, snacks and souvenirs.
If you want flowers, sit low, although I think you can take in all the action better from up higher. If you want flowers and to be able to take in all the action sit high and near an aisle.
There were four grandstands to choose from when selecting seats. We had no idea what to choose but were pleased with what we picked. I'm assuming the names of the grandstands don't change from year to year so here's a little bit about them.
Verdun-small and completely in the shade the whole time (even on a warm day like yesterday I would imagine this grandstand would have been chilly)
Faure-small, partial shade and sun
Jaures-one of the two larger grandstands, this is where we were sitting. It faces the sun, which was mostly appreciated but it did get a little warm.
Phoceens-the second of the larger grandstands. The sun will be overhead and at your back. Knowing what we know now, we'd probably pick this one.
Below is a two minute video of clips taken during the parade. I'm probably still a few years away from winning an academy award for my film making and editing skills.
