Carnival in Nice

Halloween, meet the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Carnival is nothing compared to American 4th of July parades. It has a creepy factor that is akin to Halloween, and it is normal for everyone to dress up in costumes. Little boys were running around dressed as Buz Lightyear and Spiderman, while the little girls were dressed as Snow White and a series of mermaids and witches.

The city of Nice was not decorated, really. There were a few things here and there, mostly signs, that suggested that it was Carnival time, but I really expected the whole city to be dressed to the nines for the whole thing. Not so. Apparently Carnival itself is a parade, mixed in with some other fun games and events. The parade lasted about an hour and a half, which was much longer than I expected. There was a mixture of gigantic floats, all with moving parts and specific themes, dancers, men on stilts, people in costume, gigantic floating balloons, and other people to run around and shoot streamers at the crowd. It was complete chaos. The spectators are encouraged to buy silly string and confetti, and it is acceptable to throw it or spray it at anyone and everyone. Needless to say, we joined in. The people in the parade are not so happy when you spray them, but the little kids all over love that an “adult” would want to play with silly string with them.

In the States there are all these rules about how you cannot get close to the floats. There are fences, police and security officers, and blocked roads. None of that exists in Nice. We practically stood in the parade. You could touch the floats, you could run in around the people in the parade, or cross the street whenever you wanted. There were also a lot of things that would have been deemed inappropriate in the US, especially considering there are so many children. A lot of the floats that depict women show them topless, or entirely naked. The music that plays is certainly not a radio edit. Christina Aguilera’s “Lady Marmalade” played, with the section that asks, Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir? We’re in France; they can understand that. At least in the States, the majority of children won’t know what that means. American songs played that clearly had cuss words in them, and one man walked in the parade dressed as Tarzan, with a Jane doll that he held at interesting positions. By doll, yes, I mean a blow up doll. But, different culture, different expectations.

So many people participate, that it’s a wonder there is anyone to watch, but with the huge influx of tourists every weekend, I’m sure that they make a killing. Carnival continues for three weeks with different events held on different days. The parade will run every day of the three weekends, but this was the first weekend, so likely the best parade.

While we were there it rained nearly the whole time, which was a little disappointing, but the party continued on nonetheless. The city was trashed afterwards- confetti, silly string, all kinds of trash, and streamers all caked onto the roads, benches, floats, and people.

It was very good to see Nice, which I can only imagine is incredibly beautiful when the weather is good. It was beautiful yesterday, and it was raining and a little cold, so I would love to go back sometime when it is warmer and actually see the beaches. We ate the Niceoise specialty, Socca, which is kind of a crepe that is then roughly cut up. It’s not sweet, and it’s thicker than a crepe, kind of the consistency of something made out of cornmeal, and it doesn’t have much flavor, but with a little salt and pepper, I thought it was very good. Not sure how it became a specialty, but I’m sure that if you mixed something in with it, it would be fantastic.