The Talking Suitcase

Experience the World With Kids

5 Reasons Not to Miss the Nice Carnival Battle of Flowers {Carnaval de Nice Bataille de Fleurs}

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Nice Carnival Battle of Flowers

Sitting in the stands along the Mediterranean Sea, confetti, silly string, streamers, and the fragrance from thousands of flowers swirl through the crowd. It’s almost time for the Nice Carnival Battle of Flowers to begin!

Kids cram against the rails, arms stretched out hoping to grasp the first of the yellow flowers being thrown to the spectators.  Music blares, horse hooves clip clop along the street and acrobats on stilts smile at the audience while clapping their hands in the air.  Everyone waving their arms hoping to take home the party favors of the event – FLOWERS.

Beginning in 1876, the 1st Bataille de Fleurs or Battle of Flowers emerged. Originally, young ladies dressed in their finest clothes and in decorated carriages paraded down the Promenade and exchanged bouquets of flowers with each other and admirers. Even though the event has evolved, the same elegance remains.

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Our 1 Year Travel Anniversary – 2015 in Review

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Map of 2015 Travels

On January 22, 2015 we left Virginia to begin our year of travel and adventure.  We had already applied for and received (no easy feat) our French visas and had spent plenty of time researching our decision and formulating a plan to make Nice, France our base for the remainder of 2015.

After an overnight flight, we arrived in France on the 23rd. The first few months were anything but easy.  Moving to a country where we didn’t speak the language, trying to get a French bank account, dealing with someone using my bank card credentials to almost clean out my US bank account  (another story that ends well) and missing extended family that, in the past, were always there to rely on, led to a fair amount of stress!

While we had our share of struggles, it was an AMAZING year.  The kids are on their way to speaking fluent French (while I’m just about hopeless in the language department). K wants to learn Italian next. He’s already learned a little from his school friends as well as a smattering of Greek and Spanish.

Nice France Sunset

Starting  in January, we explored Nice and the surrounding area.  We learned how to shop at the fresh markets, how to use the bus and tram systems like pro’s and began paving our way (somewhat) to becoming French residents.

Homeschooling was also a huge adjustment.  We  arrived in Nice during the middle of the school year and didn’t want to throw the kids into a school where they couldn’t  yet speak the language. We also wanted to be able to jet off and travel whenever we felt the urge. Having to wait for a school holiday can put quite the damper on spontaneous travel plans!

Homeschooling was never something I desired to do.  It took us awhile, but we finally made it work.  By homeschooling the kids , I was able to learn their weaknesses and focus on those areas for study.  The kids used a standard VA curriculum in addition to having Europe as their classroom.  In Antibes, we explored a tidal pool, later researching online the sealife we found.  There’s also  a Picasso museum there , so we studied the life and works of Picasso as part of our education.  The kids learned about wine making in Costa Brava, Spain and Gladiators in Rome.  We’ve discussed the different religions of the world, and the kids have learned to say “thank you” and “hello” in multiple languages.

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Best Parks in Nice, France

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Best parks in Nice, France

If you’re visiting Nice with kids, you need to find places for them to run, play and to just be kids in between all the sightseeing.  That’s why we’ve put together a list of the best parks in Nice, France.  Well, what we think are the best parks anyway.  These are in no particular order with the exception of my kids favorite park being listed at the top.

Even if you’re not visiting with kids, some of these parks are great to relax and have a picnic.  Adults need a break too.

Not sure what else to do in Nice?  Don’t miss all my Nice recommendations.  We’ve lived here for a year, after all.

Best Parks in Nice, France

PROMENADE DU PAILLON

Right in the heart of the city is our favorite park, Promenade du Paillon. My kiddos call it the “whale park” due to the large wooden whale-shaped play structure.

The park starts at Place Masséna with two mirror fountains, one with mist and the other with water jets. K and Lucy have the time of their lives running through these fountains on a hot summer day.

As you walk further to the north into the park,  you’ll come to some lovely age specific play equipment. Just look at the wooden signs posted by each plates to see the ages, although it’s pretty obvious which structures are meant for young kids and which are meant for older children.  The park has all sorts of wooden marine animals to entertain kids such as a huge whale and a sea turtle.  They also have two octopuses with net swings, a pirate ship and a fort amongst several other fun structures.

The whole length of the park is surrounded by vegetation from several different regions, making it a great place to relax or have a picnic even if you don’t have kids.  It’s common to see teenagers sitting in a circle in the grass or older residents relaxing on a bench soaking up the sun.

Getting there – This park is located right in the center of town, in fact,  it divides the Old Town from the new.  Since you will likely be staying around Old Town, you’ll see the park along the tramline.

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Christmas in Monaco – Learning Monaco Has an Awesome Christmas Market

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Visit Monaco at Christmas

While living in Nice, we’ve taken the scenic 45 minute bus ride to Monaco multiple times.  But experiencing Christmas in Monaco is an entirely new adventure.  The Monaco Christmas Market or Le Village de Noël de Monaco is huge. Much bigger than I would have expected.  It is a tiny country, after all.

Each year the Monaco Christmas Market depicts a new theme.  This years Russian theme, un Noël Russe, is truly magical. Huge Christmas trees are surrounded by figures in traditional Russian garb, two large Russian palaces grace the market entrances and life-size Matryoshka nesting dolls adorn the area as  picture perfect props.

My kids were fascinated by the two scenes representing the traditional tales of “The Firebird” and “Peter and the Wolf.”  The wolf was bigger than me!

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Does France Celebrate Halloween? See How the French Trick or Treat in Nice

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Does France Celebrate Halloween

Does France Celebrate Halloween? The answer is YES!  It’s just different from celebrating in the U.S.

Halloween was first introduced in France in the 1990’s, when American’s brought their tradition with them  and celebrated on October 31st.  I’m told the French are always looking for an excuse to dress-up, so it’s no wonder the holiday became somewhat popular.  From my understanding, the interest level in Halloween dropped for awhile, but has picked back up in recent years.

We celebrated Halloween in Nice, so I can’t speak for the entire country.  I can only assume there would be similarities throughout the regions of France.  If  you’re in France on October 31st, ask the locals how they celebrate.  If you want to pronounce the word like the French, don’t say the “h” in “halloween.” It’s pronounced like /ah-lo-ween/. Who’s to say who’s right?

Unlike in the U.S., France does not acknowledge Halloween as a holiday.  You won’t find the date marked on the calendar and my kids  didn’t do any type of Halloween activities in school.

The official holiday is the Catholic holiday, La Toussaint, on November 1st. This is a day of mourning the dead, bringing flowers to the grave and praying.  It’s a solemn holiday.  A stark contrast to the whimsial  festivities the day prior.

Decorating:

There was one small display set up in Carrefour dedicated to Halloween costumes and decorations. Interestingly, there were so many people around the display that I couldn’t even get a picture!  Unlike the U.S.,  you won’t find rows upon rows of candy bags, decorations and costumes for women, women, children and pets.

Decorating didn’t begin until the day of Halloween, and most places didn’t even bother.  We saw some balloons and a few spider webs.   There were no carved pumpkins or witches cackling.  Most of the decorations were at bars instead  of stores.  It’s a great marketing trick to get tourists inside to drink!

Trick or Treat:

Trick or Treating often takes place in apartment buildings in Nice, provided you live in a building with a lot of children.  Our French teacher’s daughter goes to her aunt’s house since she lives in a large complex just outside of the city.

Our apartment building doesn’t have any kids, so we ventured out and let the kids trick or treat at the shops in Old Town.  How to you know if they have candy? You just ask.

There are no porch lights on to tell you which houses to visit.  The kids could say “Des bonbons ou un sort” for trick or treat, but the (French) kids just say “avez-vous des bonbons?” which is simply “Do you have candy?”   I thought that was quite funny.  The proprietor would either say oui and drop some candy in the kids bags or non and the kids left empty handed.

A look at the Halloween candy in France - yep there is popcorn in there.

A look at the Halloween candy in France – yep, there is popcorn in there.

Also, unlike the U.S., a lot of the candy here was unwrapped.  The kids had a scoop of popcorn dumped into their bags at a bar and the yogurt shop used tongs to get a few pieces of candy from the toppings station.  Normally I would never allow my kids to eat unwrapped candy on Halloween, but when in France….

Costumes:

We saw a wide variety of costumes during our trick or treat adventure.  There were a lot of witches and several bedsheet ghosts.  It was also common for the adults to dress up.  And if they dressed up, they went all out!  Some of the  face makeup was the most elaborate I have ever seen.  I wish I had asked a few people if I could take their picture.  One girl had a gash painted on her forehead that I would have sworn was real.

I should have taken my camera out instead of just using my phone, but you get the idea of what it’s like to trick or treat in Old Town Nice.

Halloween in France 2

This bar even had a “bloody” plastic sheet at it’s entrance!

 

In the yogurt shop, the kids were given a scoop of candy straight into their bags.

In the yogurt shop, the kids were given a scoop of candy, dumped straight into their bags.

 

Thumbs up for bonbons

Thumbs up for bonbons

Celebrating Halloween in France was a unique experience. They kids may not have came home with bags overflowing with candy, but they didn’t care. Neither K nor Lucy would stop talking about how much fun they had and how neat it was to trick or treat in the stores. It goes to show, it doesn’t matter where you go, it’s always cool to be a ghoul!!!

Where have you celebrated Halloween?

You might also like how American’s can celebrate Thanksgiving in France

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