Carnival time!

One of the biggest events in the Cote d’Azur calendar is the Nice Carneval, which takes place for two weeks in February. It is actually the most popular one of its kind in France (attracting 1.2 million visitors each year), and dates all the way back to 1294 (when the following was said by Charles II duc d’Anjou « il vient passer les fêtes de carnaval, dans sa bonne ville de Nice »). These days, it's attended by more than 1.2 million people, during its two-week duration.

The Nice carneval is quite a family-oriented affair, so no Rio de Janeiro-like hedonistic madness to be exeperienced here... The most exciting thing likely (actually, certain...) to happen is getting sprayed on... But it’s all great fun, in an innocent and harmless way! The theme for this year was « Roi de la Planète Bleue », evoking the history of our planet, with an ecological twist. Apparently, extra effort has been made to minimize the impact on the environment this year... (with the usage of low-power consumption screen, LED lamps, carbon offsets etc.)

We started off the evening with a cinema, followed by a nice meal in an Italian restaurant on Rue Massena. In addition to the good and reasonably priced food they served, it was quite an authentic-feeling place, with plenty of Italians as partons. Quite surprising to find such a place amongst the tourist traps and pizzerias that dominate Rue Massena.

The carnival itself was good fun, as always. Gave me a great opportunity to make the best possible use of my new camera's excellent low-light performance. Amongst the guest star's was Mr. Barack Obama dressed in Superman costume (holding a copy of the Kyoto agreement, to keep in line with the blue planet theme). But the star of the show was, like on previous years, the frightening, awe-inspiring dragon...