Carnival!

Bonjour! I have finally re-entered the blogosphere. I have also finally started posting pictures of my recent trip to the south of France.

My trip was split into two parts, with two missions: 1. Five days visiting an old friend on the Cote d'Azur, and 2. Ten days in Provence to see what all the Peter Mayle-type fuss is about.

As for part one. This old friend was a study abroad roommate two years ago. She now lives with her French husband in Antibes, a town on the Riviera between Nice and Cannes (I know, sounds terrible). They were kind enough to put me up in their apartment while my friend played tour guide to their stretch of coast.

Luckily, my school break lined up with Carnival in Nice-- you will find pictures of this event below.

Of course I had to see the spectacle. I envisioned a raucous brouhaha clogging the streets, artistic masterpiece floats, music, noise, crowds going wild. . . But we were not in New Orleans, or Rio, or even Venice. Actually, it felt more like Disneyland.

At the beginning of the parade, the floats were lead into a gated-off parking lot. You could pay thirty euros a person (!!!) to enter the gates and admire the floats from the bleachers, or do as most people did and simply watch through the entrances and gaps in the gate. We chose the latter. At any rate, the spectacle seemed to be more for kids. The makeshift stadium was decorated with a kind of Under the Sea/Finding Nemo theme. The crowd was tame and family-oriented. My friend told me about some people she knew who, a couple of years ago, had tried to "liven up" the Carnival festivities with silly string-- and were almost forcibly removed by security. (Silly string did make an appearance this year, however. I will cherish the memory of a five-year-old girl assaulting some Japanese tourists with pink spray.)

While Carnival may not have been the Mardi Gras of my dreams, everyone seemed to be having a good time-- young, old, and especially, us.