La Vie des Feins: Nice Carnival! Part Deux!

{See the people down around the floats?? That's where we were.}

So after the Bataille des Fleurs during the day, we milled around Nice for a few hours until the Corso Illumine started at 9 pm. As anyone who has ever been to Nice knows, it is not a tough place to pass the time in. We strolled the promenade along the sea, wound our way through the paths of the old part of Nice (Vieux Nice), ate dinner in the Cours Saleya then had coffee and tea at a little brasserie overlooking a quaint square. Oh, let me back track a bit, when it was time to decide what type of tickets we were going to get for the Corso Illumine, we had 3 options: pay to sit in the stands, pay to be in the standing area, or don't pay and be one of the many pushing to get a good view in the limited 'free zone'. We weighed our options and decided to be in the standing area. Since we did not know what to expect, we made sure we arrived a little early to ensure a good place. Turns out, there was no bad place since having a standing ticket meant you are essentially walking with the floats and part of the parade. The parade lasted around 1hr 30 minutes and we took many pics (again, I know). The theme of this year's carnival is sports (guess they were not that bitter about losing the Olympic bid to London) so you will see lots of sports themed floats, Olympic rings and an appearance by The Queen. We had such a great time that I am going back tomorrow for the official 'mardi gras' carnival day parade with Fatiha, such a pity there is no basketball team in Nice...sigh.

{Big Boy up close and personal}

{Shaun was worked up at how flat the top of his head was...}

{The Queen}

{Followed by Will and Kate}

{So I asked Shaun to take a picture of me with this British Guard dude and he took one of me and the guy in the costume...seriously? At least he lowered his glasses for me...}