Study Abroad Week 7: Nice Carnaval!

 My favourite float.  I didn't get to record it the first time, when it actually breathed its hot, steamy fire breath at us, into our faces.  It was almost like a real dragon- I even just got to touch it! AWESOME
 

This is how I felt about being there

So yesterday we went to the Nice Carnaval with CEA.  Or at least, a rather small subset of us did.  It's been raining all week, and it was raining most of yesterday, too.  Bit of a bummer for our main objective in being there in the first place- to attend the Nice Flower Parade on the Promenade des Anglais along the shoreline.  Luckily, it stopped raining RIGHT as we got to our seats in the bleachers, and recommenced only after all of us had descended the bleachers.  Fortune much?  But I digress.

Gorgeous floats and costumes in this parade, don't you think?
  

But wait, there's more!

We'd passed through Nice briefly before by bus about a month ago during our excursion to Grasse, Eze, and Monaco, but we didn't really see much besides the market.  Now we actually got down and explored a bit.  We took the train to the Nice Ville train station, and walked along the main shopping avenue in front of it and to the Nice town centre, where we were to meet in about two hours to get our tickets for admission to our seats for the parade from Silvija (in case you've been wondering, that's actually pronounced Sylvie).  Our group hung out with Silvija and grabbed some food from a cafe due to the rain, then we went to a couple shops along the shopping street, though we only darted into two small shops and then worldwide chain stores like Zara, Sephora, and H&M.

The parade was wonderful.  As I mentioned already, it had been raining the entire day, but it stopped exactly for the duration of the parade.  There were so many beautiful floats, and everything was so festive! ...even if the music STILL wasn't French.  Latin American, but nope.  No French music.  Unless you count a French-Spanish cover of Frankie J's "Obsesión."  I guess it's something at this point.  The rest of the music, if lyrical, was either in Spanish or Brazilian Portuguese.  The people on the floats kept throwing mimosa flowers and shooting streamers into the bleachers.  I nearly caught some a few times, but each time the old man in front of me jumped up and grabbed them, in two cases quite literally from my grasp.  Sometime during the middle of the parade another old gentleman saw me nearly catch a shoot and miss (as in, my fingers touched it and as I grabbed the stem I knocked it down to rows below us), so he broke his catch and handed it to me and to the two girls sitting beside me.  It was adorable and touching, and the language barrier was completely transcended.

Left: Offering the others the blossoms.  Right: The three of us smiling.  I am in the centre.

The entire experience was great, plus it's a good thing we went to Nice then and there, since after spring break I have to go to Nice every day for a week for my genetics lab.  That's right folks, the labs at SKEMA Business School don't actually happen on campus because....actually good question.  I'm guessing they're poorly equipped or lacking or something.  But anyway, I have to go every day for a week right after spring break ends, for my genetics lab.  Nine to five each day is the schedule.  It shall be oh so fun to go right from the airport to Nice University, where I've never been before.  With my carry-ons, no less. Yay.

More floats, and the dreaded dragon

Au revoir!

Study Abroad Week 1- The French Riviera at a Glance

The whole group for the day one CEA program orientation.  Photo courtesy of the CEA Study Abroad- French Riviera Facebook page.

Here is the first of my posts regarding my study abroad experience.  Last Sunday, January 5th, I arrived at the Nice airport in France and was picked up by the program staff and driven to my housing in Antibes, France in the French Riviera.  The CEA staff, Kristin and Syvlie, are extremely nice- not only did they drop us off and give us keys, but they also showed us how to open our gate, walked us to our exact residence, and gave us orientation packets with a map of Antibes, bus routes, train routes, travel information, and everything you can possibly think of.  Monday we had the program orientation at a cafe they reserved for us, and we got the French take on the rosca de reyes for the Epiphany.  Kristin and Silvija then took us around the beachfront of Antibes, which is largely spanned by the remains of a beautiful Roman wall that surrounded the whole town until the 19th century.

Left: The gallete de rois for the Epiphany.  Right: The view of our street from the town square.

Tuesday was our school orientation at SKEMA Business School, and the rest of the week was spent on school until Saturday.  That was the best day of the week.  We toured the French Riviera by bus, first by a drive through Nice and a walk through the market place and the town square, followed by a stop at the Fragonard perfume factory in Grasse, which was, according to the tour guide, the perfume capital of the world.   I purchased a souvenir for one of my sisters there, as she is very much into perfume, while I am not.

Soap stall in the Nice marketplace.

After the perfume factory we went to the hilltop village of Éze, originally built as a fortified structure to protect against various invaders, such as the Romans and the Vikings.

A walkway in Éze and me posing with a statue outside the chapel.

After that, CEA took us into Monaco, where we had lunch, saw the Palais des Princes de Monaco and the changing of the guards there, and then toured the Cathedrale de Monaco.  Then came what we had all been waiting for: the visit to Monte Carlo.  That proved to be more disappointing than anything, as while I had indeed been expecting it to be classy, the casino was so quiet and so high class that it just felt stuffy and uncomfortable.  There are no cameras allowed in there, but the place was gorgeous and ornately decorated.  Most of us only remained for 5-7 minutes, although a pair did gamble before they lost approximately 50€ in 2 minutes.  I would have liked to have a drink in the Monte Carlo so that I could truly say I'd been there, but those were too pricey as well.  Taking pictures outside the Monte Carlo and the shopping square was an entirely different experience, though, and I had a lot of fun posing for these photos!

Top left: The changing of the guards at Monaco.  Top left: The Chapel of Monaco. Bottom left: Monte Carlo from the fountain.  Bottom right: The view to the left of Monte Carlo.

Au revoir!

Just a block or so off the Monte Carlo.