13 February ’05, Sunday. Carnival day !!! , Nice France Just after breakfast, we donned our warmer clothes and walked to the train station…our time table told us the train was to leave our station for Nice at 11:15am and we had to hurry it up in order to catch it. It was kind of funny though, as we arrived, there was only a mother and her daughter there on the platform, and they were on the other side. I looked up to the board and there it was…the next train was not going to leave until 12:05pm. Well, that wasn’t too bad…we could just go across the street and wait on the beach. A little bit of soaking up the rays and throwing some rocks into the water and the time would go by very quickly. Well, as it turned out, the young lady and her daughter (who just happen to be camped kitty-corner from us, and we don’t speak French), were going into Nice for the parade as well. There we were, all four of us sitting on the beach tossing rocks and not really recognizing and knowing each other. Getting back to the station, I went to the ticket kiosk to buy our tickets. Now after the last experience, I wanted it to be perfect. First off, the kiosk on “our side” wasn’t working and the girl wasn’t in again selling tickets. So, I had to run around to the other side and try the kiosk over there. The kids had gotten to the screen on that one and scratched it up so bad you really couldn’t see anything through it. Well, I did determine that I could get tickets, so then it was just a matter of getting the right tickets. I twisted and pushed the buttons, put in the amount that it asked for and out they came…2 adult 1st class…FIRST CLASS??? For a 20 minute commuter train??? “Let’s just get on the train and enjoy the day”… Arriving in Nice, we went looking for a place to pickup a sandwich and something to drink. We thought we would have a nice “curb-side” lunch while waiting for the parade to start. Finding a sandwich was easy, but then we decided to find a small bottle of wine for “our picnic”. All accomplished, and now the parade. The crowd was growing and we hadn’t found our “choice” of curb yet. Then, looking across the park, we saw what we thought was just the right spot. Believe it or not, our “neighbors” had found the same spot, and we all waited for the parade to start.
One thing that was kind of fun, was the use of confetti and “silly-string”. It was shot and tossed by the people on the floats and just about everyone on the streets watching the parade. It turned out to be a game of “who shot who” and “I’ve got to get them back” !!! In the beginning, I tried to be discreet and shoot from behind cover, or at someone’s back-side. Then, I was found out and all “Hell” broke out…I think very kid on the block was after me then, including our little “neighbor”..
We had a good time, and I hope that it all comes off the clothes OK. The parade ???, it was really good. The theme was “Carnival” and it was a Carnival. Floats, bands, very large balloons, lot’s of people in costumes, and all having a great time.
Unfortunately, the wind started to blow really hard about half way through, and it became a challenge for some of the people in the larger costumes to make it with out being blown over.