As spring arrives on the Côte d’Azur, towns and villages across the region come out to play. Fêtes and celebrations of all sorts take place, heralding the end of winter and the arrival of the good weather. Last year on Easter Monday we went to the Fête de l’Oranger in le Bar sur Loup, a village festival all about oranges. This Easter with family visiting with young kids we thought it would be fun to try out the Easter Carnival on the French Riviera which takes place in Vence, a family-friendly affair.
Carnival is usually celebrated just before Lent but in Vence, a mid-sized town inland near Nice, it takes place as part of the Easter weekend festivities There is a full programme of events from church services, traditional folk dancing and singing, to ceremonies paying respect to local well-known figures and of course the carnival.
The Easter carnival in Vence is a flower carnival, known locally as a “bataille de fleurs”. The most famous “flower battles” are at Nice Carnival a month or so earlier where the floats are made of flowers and flowers are thrown into the crowds as the procession goes along. In Vence, however, the “flower battle” doesn’t take place until the end of the parade, when the spectators are invited to raid the floats decorated in flowers. With the young kids in our gang getting restless after one loop of the parade (and several more to go) we unfortunately didn’t stay till the end but the parade itself was fun.
Vence carnival (I can’t tell you how much auto-correct wants to turn that into Venice carnival!) surprised me by being a much smaller, amateur event than I expected. Somehow I thought as it’s a reasonably big town the carnival would be big but it was a very manageable occasion. There were a dozen or so floats decorated with flowers (mainly carnations and gerberas) by local sports clubs, professional, cultural and trade associations. Whole families seemed to be involved with plenty of children taking part having heaps of fun, squirting (the dreaded) sillystring and catching confetti.
In between the floats there were majorettes, drumming troops, pipe bands, couples in period dress and some skimpily clad girls in bikinis and feathers. Somehow they looked rather incongruous in such a down-to-earth setting but they were having fun which is all that matters I guess!
Despite being a smallish event there seemed to be more sellers of sillystring, confetti and vastly over-priced helium balloons than at Nice carnival. Parents beware, your little kids will be sorely tempted by the trolleys of tat, including such carnivalesque necessities as plastic replica automatic weapons and everything “Frozen”. We managed to come away with some confetti (obligatory at carnival), a “Hello Kitty” balloon, a bee shaped balloon, a plastic gun that wasn’t too too realistic and plenty of sweets to add to the Easter loot! Anything less and we would have been harsh parents/aunts and uncles indeed!
Having said that the atmosphere was relaxed and jolly, and there was plenty of space to watch the parade go by without being stuck behind crowds of people, and of course, unlike the Nice flower battles, this event was free. It was easy to find a place to eat on the square before the start of the parade as the crowds didn’t appear till just before everything kicked off. As a stress free way to see a local carnival if the vast numbers in Nice put you off, this is a good option.
This year was the 89th flower battle or Corso Fleuri at the Easter carnival in Vence, so I imagine next year, 2017, will be a big one to celebrate the 90th anniversary.
I’ll leave you with a couple of questions and some more photos. Do you like this sort of town festival? Are you a carnival fan? I’d love to hear from you.
If you enjoyed this please PIN it!
Although I’m not a bit fan of parades and carnivals, I love the smaller festivals for their authenticity and for the great people watching. I’m thinking of checking out the Orange Festival this weekend, thanks to you as I didn’t know about! I’ve done the Menton Lemon Festival, but the one in Bar sur Loup looks enticing…
Sorry if this posts twice! I couldn’t find my original comment. I love small festivals like this. They add so much flair to a trip and can be done more spontaneously!
This looks like fun! I would love to go to the fête d’oranger. We have the strawberry festival near us as well as an asparagus festival. I love how locals celebrate the simple (and best) things.
I was talking to a friend this week about another French town which has colourful processions and celebrations during the Easter period. I do think we miss out in the UK! This looks like fun, and all the flowers are wonderful. The silly string does seem to be a bit of an odd addition. #AllAboutFrance
Fab photos & as a festival it doesn’t look too overwhelming! I used to go lots as a student & when my children were young; not so many recently. Really must make the effort to visit some local ones in the Aude.
I love, love, love French festivals. And this one looks sensational Phoebe – the colours are amazing. #AllAboutFrance
Those floral floats look amazing, worth wading through the silly string and tat
I love seeing all the flower floats! I am not great with giant crowds but it is fun to see big events like this — sounds like a really festive way to welcome spring!
This looks very manageable – very different from the Nice Carnival which we visited some years ago which was incredible as everything was so big. I see silly string and ‘trollies of tat’ are just as ubiquitous but it looks really lovely. It reminds me of our own local town, Spalding, which had a flower parade for decades until very recently. Floats were always decorated in tulip heads but not so many are grown here now (it seems to be more daffodils) and more stringent health and safety rules have put the cost up so it was stopped – which is such a shame. Great to see French towns still doing their own flower celebrations.
#farawayfiles
Hi Phoebe: I love these colourful photos of Nice’s Easter celebrations. Are you going again this year? #AllAboutFrance
Phoebe, this is one of my favorite posts on this month’s link-up. We’ve always loved the little local festivals and [i]bals de rue[/i] that bring everyone in town out into the streets – but never saw a Carnival event like this one in our part of France. Your photos really bring the flower battles alive!
Great photos, Phoebe – so much colour and happiness. 🙂
Those skimpily dressed ladies bring a flavour of Brazil to Vence-not-Venice. 😀
I love a carnival, and this one looks just about the right size to me! I can’t stand being a part of a large crowd where you hardly get to see anything as you’re squashed at the back! #AllAboutFrance
oh wow!! I never heard of it, it looks so fun!! I definitely wanna go next year!!!
One vote for the carnivals from me. The effort and love that go into their preparation and running deserves our attention. Much prefer them with no overt consumerism.
This looks great and just my sort of carnival …. I am not too sure about the bikini clad ladies, mind you and think they may find they blend in better in Rio! Tom has just looked over my shoulder and said he likes the floral Rubik cube. #AllAboutFrance
I live the fact that it is a smaller event – they always seem much more enjoyable than the larger more commercial ones & the effort that must go into making the floats is incredible especially as the will just be ripped apart! Not sure about all the tat though! Happily our boys are through that age, but silly string was always a favourite ⯑ #AllAboutFrance
Our local Easter happening is Heritage Afloat with old boats and associated boating activities. No connection to Easter but a convenient time to have the two day festival. I would just love a flower festival, there are no flower festivals anywhere near me that I am aware of. Pity because your photos of the bright flowers make it all look so beautiful.
Very interesting. I hadn’t heard of this, but the smaller crowds look very enticing. Sometimes the smaller events are even more fun than the big ones.
Gerbera Daisies are my Favorite! I’m not good with parade and carnival crowds, so a smaller more manageable affair would be perfect for me! #allaboutfrance
What fabulous flower floats! Thank you for making me feel I was there! ⯑ (Without being showered in silly string ⯑ )
Looks like a lovely carnival with a lovely atmosphere! I’ve not seen anything round here like that for Easter but I’m sure there must be something locally. #allaboutfrance
Wow, that is carnival on a much grander scale than we get in our local towns and villages – but I love them too. Seeing so much time and effort made and such bright colours, can’t fail to raise a smile.
Apart from anything else, your fab pictures remind me of how much hotter it is where you are… #AllAboutFrance
It’s the same in the Poitou-Charentes: as soon as the sun comes out, weekend events multiply and, suddenly, from searching for things to do you are inundated with this kind of event. What’s great about these flower events is the colour, which we need so much after winter. Thanks for sharing this not-Venice post (you can’t imagine how much I wanted to READ ‘Venice’ at first!). And a vey happy Easter to you, Phoebe. #AllAboutFrance.
The work that went into the floats makes the mind boggle, worth it though as it all looks very spectacular
Looks amazing. What a beautiful parade. I badly want to visit the French Riviera
No, didn’t see any shitty wine sellers!!! 😀
It was very pretty to watch!
What a gorgeous parade/carnival! So bright and colourful and SO many beautiful flowers.
That all looks very jolly, and I’ll bet no-one was trying to flog Vin de Merde.
What beautiful floats. What happens with all the flowers after the events
How lovely to see everyone dressing up and having fun! Lovely post, it’s nice to read about other people’s traditions x
Wow this looks absolutely spectacular. The pictures are beautiful.
What a stunning parade, a real spectacle that looks great for all the family
Wow so beautiful, I love all the bright colours. Would love to take my family to see something like this one day. I haven’t been to a festival like this for years. In fact I think the last street festival I attended was in Cornwall about 9 years ago!!!
I have not attended a festival for a long time but i adore flowers so i would have loved to be there! I agree with the tat sellers though… really ruins the theme. And the thought of all the silly string being sprayed to cover the beautiful flower displays would dampen the mood a little for me.
I enjoyed your images and think you have captured the culture and the feel of the festival beautifully.
It looks pretty good to me. But what a lot of flowers. I particularly liked the little girl on her tablet on the red and white float. I would have thought the little kids would have liked the flower battle but there you go.