Carnaval Celebrations!

Carnaval in Nice is a very big event. This year marked the 130th year, with the theme being 'Roi de la Gastronomie'.   For 2 weeks the city is in celebration mode, with a large part of the celebrations being the parades.   We attended the 'Bataille de fleurs' (Flower Parade), and the 'Corso carnavalesque' (Carnaval Parade).  Both were fabulous!  We left the Flower Parade with a beautiful bunch of flowers that we had caught, and we left the Carnaval Parade with the remains of silly string dangling behind us.  Great memories :o)  The kids also had a celebration at school, where they dressed up and spent the afternoon parading, eating, and throwing all kinds of 'stuff'.

C and S with mimosas they caught at the Flower Parade

D with kids waiting for the Carnaval Parade to begin

M and S deep into a silly string fight with the little girl sitting behind us

The roi (king), who we learned would be burned on a barge in the sea the last day of Carnaval (tradition!).  Mathieu was very intrigued by this!

the queen

Fire breathing dragon

Marcus the pirate, not at all a fan of the fire breathing dragon

Princesses S and C at school celebration

Coke can M at school celebration (he learned it is not easy walking around as a can of coke, especially when your straw keeps hitting you in the face)

Visit to St. Paul with Grandma and Papa

Grandma and the girls

Papa and the boys

Grandma and Papa with their hands full :o)

Valentine's Day

Grandma and Papa arrived from Manitoba in the afternoon of the 14th.  So exciting!  We celebrated with some pizza and wine, and then headed out to Vence (village up the hill) to take a look at the Valentine's art exhibition that Stephanie's art class had set up at one of the art stores.  She was very excited to show us her masterpieces.  It was a great day :o)

Valentine's Day dinner with  Grandma and Papa

Art exhibition in Vence

Stephie posing with one of her pictures

Mimosas!

February started off as another rainy, overcast month, however the blossoming of the mimosa trees was a pleasant surprise!  These trees have beautiful yellow flowers, and are everywhere!  They are very celebrated, as they are thought of as little sunshines that are the start of the spring weather.  We went to a Fetes des Mimosas in the village of Biot, which also gave us the first taste of Carnaval (see the silly string!).  Garland made of mimosa flowers was hung throughout the old streets, various dance groups and musical bands paraded down the streets, and spring was in the air.

Trying out the silly string at the Mimosa festival in Biot

Mimosa garland hung throughout the streets

Everyone had their own little bunch of Mimosa flowers