Great Carnival in Nice
Still not sure where to go with your soulmate on Valentine’s Day?
Then you will find Nice, which will open its traditional two-week carnival on February 14, 2014!
A sea of flowers, colors and a festive mood, mysterious carnival masks, fire shows and fireworks in one of the most beautiful cities in France – what could be more beautiful for lovers?
The traditional carnival in Nice is a very vibrant and colorful event that simply cannot be missed. For 15 days, from February 14 to March 4, this sunny French city will host Carnaval de Nice, one of the most significant events on the Cote d’Azur. By the way, the Carnival in Nice is one of the largest and oldest traditional carnivals in the world, which has been held here annually since the 13th century. About one million tourists come to see this festival in Nice every year.
Carnaval de Nice 2014 will be devoted to the theme of French cuisine, so the name of the festival this year will be appropriate – “King of Gastronomy.”
This topic was not chosen by the organizers of the event – exquisite French dishes have long become a vivid symbol of tourist Nice. By the way, this year gourmet tourists will be able to appreciate the new restaurants in Nice, opened under the label “Nice Cuisine, respect for traditions.”
As for the program of the event, this year the carnival will delight its spectators with its traditional flower battle.
The flower battle in Nice is very colorful – several dozen seven-meter platforms decorated with fresh flowers pass through the city, from which carnival participants will scatter thousands of flowering mimosa branches over the crowd.
Decorating carnival platforms in Nice is another special tradition – hundreds of French florists and designers are painstakingly working on creating unique flower arrangements and carnival costumes for the participants, competing among themselves in creativity and unusual design.
In total, it is planned to spend 4 thousand flowers on decorating carnival chariots in 2014, and about 5 tons of flowering mimosa will be allocated for showers of spectators.
The festive procession will be followed by a festive procession of dancers, musicians and actors, to which the townspeople dressed in festive costumes and carnival masks join.
By the evening of the first day of the carnival, the famous Place Massena will be lit up with 150 thousand festive lights. A temporary prefabricated stadium will be erected here for the Carnaval de Nice, and the surrounding buildings will be covered with special decorations of 120 thousand square meters of plywood, hand-painted by local artists. The process of painting and decorating the square also has its own traditions and is very fun and noisy.
The venue of the Carnaval de Nice 2014 and its famous flower battles will remain unchanged – events will take place on the famous Promenade des Anglais.
Every day, wagons decorated with flowers and ribbons with giant papier-mâché carnival dolls, the protagonists of the Carnival, will ride through the streets of Nice. The dolls are really just huge and you just can’t miss them – bright designs reach a height of 12 meters and usually weigh about 2 tons.
In addition to the main festive procession, mandatory day and night parades will be held, in which the king of the carnival and his queen will take part, which will be elected on the evening of the first day of the festivities. And in the evenings, flower shows are replaced by spectacular fireworks and concert programs.
