Rain, Snow and Confetti

Thusday morning I woke up to the sound of torrential rain. These are the kind of days that SO make me want to just close the curtains and go back to sleep. But, as I had a meeting to go to, I got ready and rushed out the door - umbrella in hand.

I am bit self-conscious about my umbrella - it is slowly falling apart and is almost to the point where the spokes poke out by themselves. Not very cool - especially in France. Last time I was out with it I couldn't even get it opened properly so I was holding this barely open, broken umbrella above my head when a helpful Frenchman commented loudly: "MADAMOISELLE! VOTRE PARAPLUIE EST MALADE! PEUTETRE IL A H1N1! (Translation: "Madamoiselle, your umbrella is sick. Maybe it has H1N1") French men are not shy to speak their minds. This was embarassing but obviously still not enough to stop me from using it :) I AM meaning to buy a new one but I am being picky - I want one with blue and white stripes :)

By the time my meeting was over, the rain had completely turned to snow! This is pretty amazing for Nice cause it only snows once every 5 years or something! It was fun because people got very excited and were taking pictures and making snowballs. Here are some photos of the snow from my balcony:

FRIDAY

Friday morning I woke up early and headed out to run some errands before lunch. It was a clear day but still pretty cold and some snow was still on the ground. As I don't have a printer at home I've started running to a local copy shop to do my printing. I found a nice one just about ten minutes walk north of my house. So this is where I headed still feeling half asleep.

I walked into the copy shop and greeted the man at the desk with a 'bonjour' (it is important in France to greet the shop owner when you come in) and asked if I could do some printing. When I had finished my printing and had stood up to pay, another man came in and began chatting with the shop owner. As soon as he saw me behind him, he announced in a very loud deep voice "EST-CE QUE CETTE JOLIE MADAMOISELLE A BESOUIN DE L'AIDE?" (Does this beautiful Madamoiselle need help?) I was immediately jolted out of my half-asleep state. He motioned for me to go ahead of him. I smiled awkwardly, nodded, and mumbled something as I went ahead to pay - I'm definetly not very cool when caught off guard. As I headed out the door to leave he bellowed after me: "VOUS ETES RAVISSANTE MADAMOISELLE!" ("You are ravishingly beautiful Madamoiselle") I couldn't help smiling. There is nothing like being complimented loudly in a copy shop first thing in the morning to get to your day off to a good start. ;)

CARNAVAL

Last night was the first day of Carnival here in Nice! The carnival as it is now has been running every year since the late 1800s - with local artisans preparing floats - but the first documented mention of the carnival was in the 16th century! The first evening is the opening ceremonies where they bring out the floats of the King and Queen of the carnival. They acually burn the king on the last day of carnival - I'm really not sure why.

I couldn't find anyone to go with me so I went down to place Massena myself at 9pm to check it out. The only place I could find left to stand was on the ground as the stands were full. This turned out to be the best place cause I was right in the parade route!

There were tons of people, tons of kids and everyone was spraying neon silly string or throwing confetti! To start off they brought out huge round baloons (like Macy's parade size) held by glowing colourful creatures. One baloon even had an acrobat suspended from the bottom. After the balloons they rolled out huge floats of the king and queen. They were quite frightening looking actually - I might have cried if I was a kid ;) Overall it was pretty spectacular and in the end I did end up running into someone I knew as she danced by me in the crowd. Fun night :)