Nice Carnaval

Sunday - last day of the carnaval - for this year. Though I was recovering from a cold, it was another lovely day, and we went to the centre for the final parade. It was not as crowded as I'd expected, so we were able to move around easily, which was just as well, as the carnaval floats went at a snail's pace. So it's better to walk along past them to get a view of most of them.



It has a long history:

'Le Carnaval de Nice, a la chance d'avoir l'un des plus riches et longs passés dans l'histoire des carnavals du monde. Il apparaît en 1294, lorsque les chroniques signalent la venue du Comte de Provence Charles II, "pour y passer les jours joyeux du carnaval".
...
Le carnaval change d'aspect lors du séjour, en 1830, du roi Charles-Félix. Pour la première fois, un "corso" fut organisé sur le Cours Saleya, en hommage aux souverains. A bord de voitures et de calèches, fleuries et décorées, les notables niçois défilèrent en "riches costumes" sous le balcon du Palais Royal.'



Today things are rather different, instead of the the Nicois nobility strutting their stuff, fun is made of the current "nobility":


'Aujourd'hui, le carnaval niçois devient le terrain privilégié de la créativité des carnavaliers, qui caricaturent dans le meilleur style grotesque aussi bien les scènes de la vie niçoise que les évènements internationaux. Il nous donne ainsi un témoignage inestimable et incomparable sur la vie de nos contemporains à travers la vision humoristique des carnavaliers.'
http://www.nicerendezvous.com/FR/C_culture.php

So the "king" of the carnival was Chirac in French football outfit:



Sarkozy and Royal were caricatured too:





But anyone could be a princess for the carnival:





Beauty and the beast


There was a lot of squirting of coloured foam, but at least none of the damn whistles which plague the Notting Hill Carnival.




Some young people enjoyed showering each other with flour:



By the time we got to the Promenade des Anglais we decided to try the terrace of the Casino/Le Meridien, which was remarkably uncrowded and provided a great view.



It was 15 € entry, but that included a cocktail and a panoramic view of the carnaval and the sea. We felt like Nicois nobility watching the plebs at play :-)