Corso Carnavaleque

On Sunday afternoon, we went tot he carnival parade at Massena. We got the cheap tickets, standing but got a great place. The parade comes down the road and turns in the square. We were standing in the square so the floats went around us. I was expecting barriers but there weren't any. You mingled with the floats and parade. It was amazing.
If you dressed up, you got in free. And there some great costumes.

Buzz Lightyear, cleaning up!

These guys really made a effort (and got me with silly string later!)

 It was the place to be. There were celebrates everywhere! :-)

The Royal Family showed up.

Will and Kate

Even the Pope...

...and Barrack put in an appearance

The floats were amazing! There were 20 in total, all on the theme of sport, in honour of the 2012 Olympics. 

Roi du Sport, king of sport.

Reine Du sport, queen of sport

I'll leave you to make you minds up about this one...

Shot silly string and streamers at the crowd.

I have no idea what she is doing...

Wacky races car.

On the doping scandals in sport.

Huge monkeys before the India float

Scared lots of kids. Its eyes flashed!

 And the costumes were amazing. In between the floats were dancers, musicians, and entertainers.

White dragon

In front of big bird cousin.

Dancing Daffodils

Unfortunately the head was cut off the photo!

These ladies were on the last float...

 After the carnival, we headed to a bakery for something to eat and drink, and a much needed sit down. It was a great day and I am looking forward to the other parades on Wednesday.
(I'll put more photos up on Facebook as I took hundreds!)

Earthquake!

So the other night, there was an earthquake in Nice. The epicentre was in a village 60miles from Nice and measured 4.1 on the Richter scale. It was at 11.38pm here and I was just getting to sleep, when the bed started shaking. My first thought was "Damn undergrads!" but then the shaking carried on. It wasn't very serious. Nothing fell over etc, though I was getting a little unnerved when it continued for 10secs. I am on the 4th floor and the building wobbled more than it comfortable.
So snow and earthquakes on the French Rivera. No one ever mentioned this when they talked about Nice!  

Menton Citrus Festival

So last week was a very long week. The deadline for the HST proposals was on Friday. At 2am Saturday morning French time. And yes, we were still up working on it at 2am. I got into the office at 10am Friday morning and left 16 hours later! That was a long day.
So I had a much deserved lie in on Saturday morning. In the afternoon, I did my shopping and then headed with Gerry into Menton. Menton is a small town along the coast, just past Monaco on the way to Italy. Every year they have a citrus festival. They have a parade along the see front which we didn't see as it is sold out. However, they also have a citrus exhibition garden.
There are loads of big displays all made out of oranges and lemons. Each one was from one of the region in France.

From the Champagne region

Castle made of oranges and lemons

Giant orange/lemon man

Eiffel tower as you've never seen it before

There are also stalls selling citrus based products. We had some very nice samples of orange liqueurs, lemoncello (Menton is only a few miles from the Italian border), and lime-cello, which is really nice. Unfortunately they were all a bit too expensive and too heavy to bring home. We also tried some of the marmalade. I am not a big marmalade fan but some were very nice.

Lemon, lime and orange liqueurs - very nice!

The best stall in my opinion was the Grand Marnier stall which sold crepes with of course Grand Marnier. I had a chocolate crepe with Grand Marnier. And they let you pour your own liqueur. Mine was drenched! It was fantastic. And accompanied with a hot lemonade.

Heaven!

After that we head back to Nice and Gerry cocked me a very nice meal of grilled fresh fish and veggies, with black rice. This was top off with a really nice bottle of wine called Pouilly-Fuse, which I thought was from the Loire valley, one of the region I still need to sample. But I got the name wrong. I wanted the Pouilly-Fume instead. The Pouilly-Fuse is from the Burgundy region. Still it was a very nice wine.

very nice ending!

My birthday

Mom and Dad left on Tuesday evening, so we spent the day in Town wondering around and shopping in the Markets.
The weather also warmed up a little so we sat by the sea for a bit as Dad went to take some photos.

After lunch we decided to go back to the sea and sat on the promenade, people watching. There was some sort of traffic problem. A bike pulled a car over, they exchanged words, and the bike drove off. However, the car stayed put. In the middle of the road. The guy got out, had a few words with a passer-by and then walked off. Leaving his car in the middle of the road, blocking all the traffic heading east in the Promenade. Within 10 minutes, a police van and 2 police cars arrived and 4 police men ran off into the old Town to hunt for the guy. I have no idea if they found him.

We were also sitting people watching, when a guy on his push-bike cycled passed with his dog. This would not be so unusual, if the dog had not been sitting on his shoulders as he cycled passed! I really wish I had got a photo of it but he was too quick.

Mom and Dad got the bus to the Airport at about 5, so I headed home with my birthday cake.

My birthday cake/Pastry

I had a nice night in watching films, drinking the wine from the vineyard and eating my little cake. I was exhausted after 5 days walking practically non-stop so had a very welcome and needed early night. Poor Mom and Dad didn't get home until 1am in the morning.

Anyway, I had some lovely presents including a great pair of socks from Mom and Dad. You know you are getting old when you are happy about socks. But they are fleece lined and so soft. As I didn't really pack for weather this cold, they are very welcome. I also got a Hottie. (Now not people can say they got a Hottie for their birthday.) Of course I should explain that it is a microwavable hot water bottle, but still...

I had a good birthday on the French Riveria. Thanks for all the birthday messages and cards and presents. (I haven't opened them all as Mom and Dad could only bring some of them. I will get the rest in a month when I go home.)

xxx

Monte-Carlo

On Monday, we took the train into Monte-Carlo. The first challenge was getting out of the train station. The station is set into the hill so there are a number of lifts and escalators to a number of different exits. The first attempt took us to the top of the hill which was not where we wanted to be. (The arrows tend to point in roughly direction you want but not always.) However, the view from the top was great.

View from the top of Monte-Carlo train station

After a bit of trial and error (and wondering around), we made it to the port. I thought the boats in Nice were big. These were disgustingly huge. They had multiple boats on some yachts.

One of the enormous yachts

This one has multiple boats on the yacht!

Monaco Port

We then went to the Casino, again finding the subway though trial and error. The subway was marble and gold. This was to get to the elevator to go up the hill. Again, this was very James Bond. I expected the doors to open and Jaws or Dr. No to be on the other side. :-)The Casino was massive and very posh. We were not allowed in. So we sat in the outdoor café next to the Casino and had an expensive hot chocolate while watching the Bentleys, Mercedes, and BMWs past by. One guy got out of his car passed his keys to the valet outside the Casino and walked off with his wife. He didn't even shut the door, which then stayed open for the next 20 mins.
It was great sitting people watching. Dad brought a wine opener in the shop next to the Casino (one of the few affordable things).

Monte-Carlo Casino

Outside the Casino

Random (melting) chocolate car parked outside the Casino

We then took the shuttle boat across the harbour and went to the Oceanography Museum. Again, it took a series of hillside lifts and hidden elevators to find it. The Museum is right on the cliff side and has an amazing aquarium inside. We spent a few hours looking around.

Back of the Oceanography museum

Sad looking ray

Sea Turtle having lunch

"Give us a kiss, love ..."

The corals were amazing

On the way back to the train station, we went past the royal Palace. Unfortunately the Palace Apartments are not open until May so we couldn't go inside. But they are very pretty from the outside.

Monte-Carlo royal Palaces

We also stopped at a bakery and I had a really nice Chocolate eclair. All over Monte-Carlo there are pictures of Princess Grace. On the streets, there are plaques with pictures of her and in the shops there are photos of when she visited the area as well as photos of the current King and his new wife. They really do love their royal family.

Port, Colline du Chateau and circus

On Sunday morning, we headed to the port to see all the boats. There were some massive boats there this time.

Nice Port

Two huge private yachts

However, my favourite boat...

I also introduce Mom and Dad to Florian, my favourite artisan chocolatiers. Then we head to the hill to Colline du Chateau (also known as Castle Hill) which lies between the port and the old town.

Momument at base of the hill

View across Nice from the base of the hill.

Mom and I took the elevator up (it was automated and felt very James Bond) while Dad walked up. Here are the ruins to a Greek City called Nike. There used to be a Cathedral on the top but it was ordered destroyed.

Archways

Ruins of the Cathedral

However the best bit is the views of Nice from the top.

Me at the top of Castle Hill

View of Nice from the top of Castle Hill

Nice Old Town

View of Nice port from Castle Hill

Mom and Dad having a good time in Nice

And to prove it was cold, the water in one of the fountains had frozen!

Frozen fountain

On the evening, we went with Gerry and Françoise to the Circus. I will admit to crying for the first 10 minutes. They had animal acts and I really did not like it. The first act contained 4 lionesses and 4 tigers. I hated it. They should not be there in those cages, forced to jump through hoops.
There were a number of animal acts, with zebra, ostriches, horses, a camel, and dogs, to name a few. Most just run around the ring. Only the horses and the cow looked a bit mistreated. I really hated watching those and wish I hadn't gone.

Poor caged Tiger

Zebra not looking amused...

The acrobats were good. There was a double bell thing (I have no idea how to explain this so see the picture). The guys doing that were very good. And the woman tight-rope walker was amazing. She did the splits on the tight rope and then walked en pointe along it. That was cool.

Acrobat wheel thingy