Day 2453 (Sunday) 25th February 2024

This is Cagnes sur Mer

and this is Place Massena in Nice, which looked really different today.

We had a beautiful pink sky last night.

It was a beautiful sunny day this morning but they are predicting rain later on so we went to Nice early.

Nice was super-busy with tourists everywhere – it looked like summer. We parked the scooter and immediately saw these statues outside a café.

Every year they have a different theme…

From February 17th to March 3rd 2024. Parades of Corsi Carnavalesques (day and night) and flower battles, entertainment, shows... are organised. This year's theme is the "King of Pop Culture", the Carnival of the great figures of Manga, video games and series. We went straight to Place Massena and it looked great.

Carnival in Nice, Saturday, February 17th 2024 – Sunday, March 3rd 2024

The Nice Carnival has been held for over 140 years and is one of the largest in the world. This event attracts up to one million tourists to the Cote d’Azur in the winter, costs 7 million euros, and consumes 20 tons of confetti.

The Carnival in Nice (Carnaval de Nice) takes place in February and is the largest winter event on the Cote d’Azur. Its origins date back to 1294, while the event as it’s known today has been organised since 1872. The carnival was invented to provide entertainment for the bourgeoisie wintering on the French Riviera.

Nowadays it’s an event for everyone. In 2009, over one million guests from around the world took part in the carnival. Every year, a 1,000 artists from many countries of the world participate in colourful parades along with 18 floats carrying huge puppets. The carnival budget for 2012 was 7 million euros.

Carnival in Nice – the Rio de Janeiro of Europe

The Carnival in Nice begins on a Friday evening in Nice’s Massena Square with the entrance of the huge King of Carnival puppet. For all the days of the carnival, the king stands right next to the Fountain of the Sun and takes part in all the parades. He is accompanied by the equally large puppet – Queen of Carnival. Every year the theme of the event changes.

During the two weeks of the Nice carnival, a variety of events are held. The most important ones include the evening Light Parade (Corso Carnavalesque Illuminé) and the Flower Battle (Bataille de Fleurs), which is held during the afternoon.

The Light Parade is the most important point in the Carnival. The centre point of the parade is Massena Square (Place Massena), where huge grandstands are set up for the public. Between these go a colourful procession of puppets and artists, everything is highlighted, and everyone dances to the rhythm of the music. During the event, every now and then, confetti is shot into the air, 20 tons of which is consumed each year. As with the Flower Battle, several Light Parades take place during the Carnival.

Nice, French Riviera

The Flower Battle is a colourful procession of vehicles richly decorated with fresh flowers. Those who are riding on the floats, dressed in costume, throw flowers into the audience, especially mimosas, gerberas, lilies, and roses. In total, up to 100,000 fresh flowers are used in one battle. 90% of these grow near Nice.

The Nice Carnival ends with the burning of the King of Carnival puppet and a spectacular fireworks show.

Practical information

The Carnival is worth seeing with your own eyes, however, it must be remembered that this is a ticketed event. Standing places during the parades cost 10 euros, while seats are 25 euros. You can also buy tickets for several events, which will be cheaper. Of course, children also have discounts. People dressed in colourful costumes can enter the event area for free. Unfortunately, the event area is well separated, so you can not see anything outside the area.

The event lasts approximately 15 days. Additional information can be found at nicecarnaval.com (also in English).

We had left it too late to get tickets to watch the parade.

From Place Massena we went to the flower market, (Cours Saleya)

it’ll soon be time to get some new plants/flowers

and then we went to the Promenade des Anglais.

We found some blue chairs and enjoyed some people watching.

We were amazed how many people were swimming – madness. Yes, it’s sunny but there was a bitter cold wind blowing.

On the way home we were incredibly lucky by the Old Port; there were police everywhere and we were wondering what was going on. We stopped at a red light when we realised they were stopping the traffic for the parade and we saw it all. 

This is Freddy Mercury.