My husband and I are going to be driving around in the South of France in early-to-mid February. I thought we might go to Nice, but then I saw that there is a big carnival there for most of the month. We generally avoid events where there are big crowds. Should we give Nice a miss this time, or is the Carnival (and some of the flower parades) something nice to experience (not a big headache as I fear it might be)?? Thanks for the advice!
Posted by
Massachusetts
715 posts
Carnival as in the beginning of lent? Never been to Nice during carnival, but I have been to various Italian cities and towns at this time. I enjoyed it. One of the joys of travel is being in a place which is celebrating local traditions. Be aware of roving packs of youth having fun and throwing flour at each other as part of the celebration.
Posted by
Decorah, Iowa, USA
345 posts
Good evening! My husband and I have been to Nice twice during the Carnivale. We loved it. The first time we were there, we stayed at the Mercure (Accor brand) at the Marche aux Fleurs. We had a room facing the parade route. We were able to watch the on-goings from our hotel window. We could open the windows and lean out to see the parade. There were metal bleachers set up along the Promenade for parade viewers. I don't know the cost of the bleacher seats. Our hotel was across the street from the Promenade.
The only problem we had was that we had a lot of paper confetti "shot" into our room by someone with a small "cannon". We had confetti all over the room. We had to get a vacuum from the front desk so we could clean up the room. On one of the later days, we thought we would fool the confetti shooters so we opened the other window. The shooters"were ready for that so we again had another ton of paper confetti in the room. Those little pieces of paper made a nice souvenir.
The next year, we stayed at a Barcolo hotel. We had a terrasse so we could watch the parade from on high. That was an entirely different perspective. My sister and I went down to the streets to see part of the parade and take close-up pictures. On the day of the flower parade, we were also able to get some good pictures and be part of the fun along the street.
We also usually try to avoid "big crowd" events but my husband had planned our trip to be in Nice for the Carnivale. I am glad he did because both years were experiences. If you can go to Nice for the event, my advice would be to GO!
P.S. We never had any issues with kids throwing flour. Just the confetti! :)