Friday, February 15

Nice Carnival South Of France Photos

Nice France Carnival

You may have read in my recent post The Retrieving Of Bonzo Got Us Into A Doo-Dah about how my wife 'found' some of our old photos from the mid 1990s.

As explained in the post the photos were mainly of Bonzo, our once much loved cat and other animals. One set, however, was from Nice in France at the time of their famous carnival.

Back then I was a manager of a finance and loan company and the directors introduced an incentive scheme whereby members of the various offices could win a trip to Nice, South of France. As my office came out top I won the prize along with several of my staff - so we all went off to Nice at carnival time along with our partners.

Nice Carnival floats

We had a great time. I Googled this morning to see when the Nice Carnival was taking place this year. As happens, when you get into coincidence or synchronicity, it starts today: 15th of February. So finding those photos was a timely reminder.

While in Nice I had trouble with my then camera so the photos aren't that special but will give a little flavour of the carnival. One thing I do remember well was when we were walking along in a group laughing and joking a woman came up to me and, without warning, stuffed confetti in my mouth! Seemingly this is a tradition at the carnival.

We also all bought silly masks to join in with the fun atmosphere. That's some of my work colleagues below, fortunately I must have been taking the photo!

Nice France carnival

Ah, there is one photo of me, on the right.

We were all at a fairly formal dinner and Nikki, one of my assistant managers, decided to cover me with streams of coloured paper. The others actually thought this was funny!

I look back on that time with great fondness, even though I was beginning to dislike the actual job I was doing. What I did like though were the people I worked with and I think this was why we did so well.

The following year, 1997, my last with the company, we won the holiday prize again, this time to Athens.

Not sure what happened with the photo below of the Nice Carnival, my camera must have slipped or something ... I think I remember having had one or two glasses of wine at the time.

Nice Carnival parade girls

Nice Carnival France

Another photo of me - just. The head at the very top of the photo is me, wearing glasses - must have been determined to get a good view. The others nearby are work colleagues, not sure where Karin was.

And below, even the band got covered with streamers, foam and confetti. No one was safe.

Band at Nice Carnival France

Strange how I looked at the photos on the same day as this years Nice carnival started.

Random Travel Posts:
The Signs While Walking The Ibiza Coast With A White Heron
Synchronicity Starts With Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Mysterious Symbolism In Mijas Spain
and click here for more travel posts

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9 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Your comment actually made me groan! Nice one.

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  2. That must have been fun, would love to visit the South if France. Must sweet talk BF!

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    1. I've driven to the south of France, it's great down there: St Tropez, Cannes, Nice and Monte Carlo isn't far either once you reach the coast.

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  3. Looks like fun and even better is that you won the trip!

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    Replies
    1. That's right, great to have a holiday for free.

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  4. It wasn't a nice Carnival for these tourists though -

    " Reeking of raw sewage, a cruise ship carrying more than 4,200 (42?) people has docked in Alabama after drifting at sea for four days.
    What was supposed to have been a pleasurable excursion in the Gulf of Mexico turned into a hellish ordeal after an engine room fire left the ship without the power needed to prepare meals or flush toilets."

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-15/stricken-cruise-ship-docks-after-nightmare-voyage/4521758

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    1. There seems to be a few cruise ships that have had problems recently - some with sickness and the like. The one you mention was on our TV news yesterday.

      Never fancied a cruise myself - other than it gets you to various ports.

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  5. The streamer 'mask' is impressive!

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