Nice Carnival and the Battle of Flowers (Carnaval de Nice et La Bataille de Fleurs)

In Provence they know how to attract tourists even in the winter - with a few colorful, fragrant festivals. One of them is the famous Carnival, which includes also the Battle of Flowers.

Because of the mild climate in this southern part of France, flowers are already blooming and oranges are ripe. When you get off the plane, you are surprised by the hot sunlight and amazing blue sky. In the grass along the road, you can see wild irises and the surrounding hills are yellow from mimosa. Small towns and villages definitely do not sleep, on the contrary, there is a pleasant atmosphere - they organize a lot of feasts, markets and carnivals. If you want to forget the gloom of winter for a moment and get some spring energy, this is the best place to do it.

The earliest mention of the carnival in Nice dates back to 1294, the satirical floats parade takes place since the nineteenth century. However, the modern carnival was born only in 1882, when for the first time the King triumphantly entered the city. The huge puppet presided in the center as if watching over the fun.

The celebration of life has eventually become the main winter event on the French Riviera; nowadays it lasts almost three weeks and attracts tourists from all over the world. In addition, the weather is beautiful, the beach during lunchtime is full of people and many of them are already in swimsuits! Imagine sitting in a shore restaurant and listening to seagulls squawking; while the scent of fresh croissants and coffee blends with a salty sea odor...

After a long winter, Provence will charge your energy. No wonder the wealthy, especially English and German pensioners, spend here all the cold months.

The carnival begins at the Massena Square, where His Majesty the King and his Queen are presented with the keys to the city. The majestic, several meters tall figurines then oversee all the festivities. Their look is inspired by the theme which is different every year, it was already the King of Five Continents, of the Mediterranean, Blue Planet, Energy, Music, Sport, Art and many others. For example, the throne of the King of gastronomy was the hamburger with a baguette dorsal and the Queen Charlotte was standing directly in a tempting strawberry pie. One look at her, and I had to visit the closest patisserie shop :)

On selected days, day and night Carnival Parades or Bataille de Fleurs take place. Actually, the Battle of Flowers is not a battle at all.

It was introduced in 1876. The main attraction are the carriages generously covered in flowers. Mimosa prevails, but you can also see carnations, gerberas, roses, tulips, lilac, lilies and even orchids. Once it was a simple exchange of bouquets, reserved for the elite but eventually the event turned into a pompous demonstration of the work of local producers. The procession of high metal constructions wrapped in scented flora rolls slowly along the Promenade des Anglais. The uniquely costumed girls stand on them, wave to the spectators and throw them the flowers at first from the buckets, but gradually start to pick also those of the carriages. Big bouquets fly over your heads and both children and adults scream, yell, and raise their hands trying to catch as much as possible. Originally, it was believed that the audience would bring a fragrant "ammunition" too and toss it to the girls, but the idea was not taken.

A lot of musicians, dancers and masks from different countries participate in this parade. Half naked Brazilian beauties with butterfly wings, much appreciated by the male audience; elegant horsewomen in white wigs, damsels with the collars blowing in the wind. Marching band playing a clam, a kettle and a toilet bowl. Inflatable horses that look like grown out of the body of their bearers and resemble tender specters. Scary dinosaur, fuming like a chimney. The fishermen, carrying their dazzling silvery catch in the sky above them. The Slovakian Majorettes Flowers of Prešov (which the commentator admired so much he informed us about every move they did. They triumphed even over the South American girls, who vivaciously shook their busts in the rhythm of samba. When the Slovaks walked around, my neighbor leaned over so much he almost fell to the ground, while trying to get a better view and take pictures).

Especially impressive attractions are the giant balloons of various shapes that float above the crowd. Imagine something like a painted, insufflated black pudding representing a dragon, a scorpion or a man. They are held by several ,,puppet masters” who are masterfully controlling their ropes. Sometimes they put the dummies close to each other, as if they were kissing; sometimes they tilt a robust figurine to people as if it wanted to see them better. They let it float for a while, then they pull it down so sharply, it almost drops on the nose.

The whole ,,circus” goes around the promenade for the second time, but it is not fun anymore. For the first time, the bloom-covered carriages were elegant and full of colors, now they look like hens stripped of feathers. The girls smile from ear to ear and wave enthusiastically; but in vain. It is said that each of them throws around hundred thousand flowers! Indeed, everybody leaves with a smaller or bigger bouquet...

The road remains covered by the tons of confetti and paper ribbons, but not for long - the last ones to arrive are the cleaning vehicles.

If you want to see a day and night carnival parades, Corso Carnavalesque, you can either buy tickets for the tribune or watch it standing alongside the road.

In the evening, the streets are congested. The procession starts at 9 pm, but if you want to catch a good spot, you should be there already at eight. The locals are easy-going and have fun; tourists take it more seriously, sometimes they are in crazy masks, especially drunk Englishmen. Children with silly string spray everybody and everything and they throw confetti in such a quantity that there is no escape. Small papers get everywhere, when I undressed that night, at least one kilo spilled out on the carpet. (I wouldn’t like to hear the cleaning lady’s commentary on the next day.)

At 9 pm, allegorical floats, already standing around the garden Jardin Albert 1er, start moving. They are huge masterpieces, on which hundreds of enthusiasts worked for months. The figurines on the carriages can be twenty-meter high; they are from a traditional papier mâché and have movable limbs. The artist-craftsmen from the ateliers "Maison du Carnaval", "Carnival House", designed them a year in advance and then created them, piece after piece. Every workshop try to make something original. The result is so highly sophisticated that if you do not have a booklet with explanation, you can’t understand it.

To give you an idea: when the theme was the King of Sports, the car ,,Deal with the Devil” represented those who were willing to sell their soul to Lucifer for a medal. The big Satan with the luminous eyes was slowly turning his head to the right and to the left, the dishonest athlete was boiling in the cauldron and the little devils flew around.

I remember a float with the sheik who was smiling maliciously holding a fish hook with a jerry can; there were cars around it with people of different nationalities, all praying to the gasoline.

"Protection of the French language" was a long tongue; standing on it was the Superman and people with a dictionary in one hand and a sword in the other one. The man with the big red nose embodied the "Dictatorship of the Sommelier", because he could destroy or beef up a career of any wine producer by one judgement. The "Return of Gargantua" was impersonated by Gerard Depardieu, carrying on the hand a small Putin who fed him with caviar. Well, the symbolism was clear, the actor moved to Moscow to protest high taxes. Genetically modified vegetables - carrots, onions and a murderously angry pea, but also a scientist with maniac spark in his eyes, trying to create new animals, illustrated the ”Food of the future”. The French have not forgotten the beloved comedian Coluche who died in the accident and today cooks somewhere up in the clouds...

Of course, the parade can’t take place without the politicians, and particularly without Angela Merkel. She prepares ,,the cabbage soup" for the whole of Europe, although not everybody likes it. For sure she didn’t feel offended, as they made her a sexy youngster in Tirol's costume.

Behind her the then French President François Hollande followed, sitting on a pile of smelly cheeses with names ,,Deficit", ,,Unemployment" and ,,Crisis ". Such ,,trivialities” weren't a problem for him, he was smiling peacefully. Putin was present too.

The show features marching bands, orchestras, acrobats and grosses têtes, the huge funny heads that people carry on their shoulders. In order to put them on, they must first lay them to the ground, get inside and adjust a foam protecting them from pain. When you walk around, it looks like after the massacre, there are plenty of legs on the pavement and the bodies swing from side to side, as the owner looks for a suitable position to be able to get up with the head :)

The enormous floats slowly work their way past Jardin Albert 1er, each welcomed with a loud acclaim. From time to time, you hear bang!; and the confetti pours down like snowflakes. They play all the famous disco hits, (I was sitting but my legs were dancing the whole evening). The parade lasts nearly two hours, then the King and Queen are placed again at the Massena Square.

The celebration of life takes three weeks, but the King is awaiting the cruel fate on the last day. His reign is over; he is put out to sea and burned. According to the legend, he will rule the future carnival only if he is born from his own ashes. Carnival comes to an end with a spectacular firework of the Angel Bay. The party is over.

By the way, if you feel like eating something good before the fast, one advice. In the evening; when the temperature drops a little, nothing will warm you more than a hot fish soup (soupe de poisson). Here they serve a dark brown broth with pieces of roasted bread, grated cheese and rouille, spicy garlic sauce. I have noticed that even the French do not have a united view of how to eat it. Somebody adds the sauce in a hot fluid directly, another spreads it on the bread. But who cares, it tastes fantastic anyway! :)

See also:

The Mimosa Festival, Mandelieu la Napoule

The Lemon Festival, Menton

The Violet Festival, Tourrettes sur Loup

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