Celebrating Carnival in Bordeaux, France-Les Carnaval des deux rives 2014!

Dancing - Antilles style

Hoping to keep the rain away!

It's that time of year - Carnaval!

It's actually one of the fun traditions that I have enjoyed celebrating here in France. Coming from New York State, Carnaval was not really celebrated-we read about it and friends who would go to New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras (The last day of Carnival season).  But we had never really experienced it.  So what exactly is this Winter/Spring festival?

It actually dates back  hundreds of years ago when the followers of the Catholic religion in Italy started the tradition of holding a wild costumed festival right before the first day of Lent.  As Catholics are not suppose to eat meat during Lent, this festival was named "Carnevale" which means "to put away the meat".  As time passed, carnivals in Italy became famous and the tradition passed to all the Catholic Countries in Europe.  As the French, Spanish and Portuguese began to explore, settle and gain control of the Americas and other parts of the world, they brought with them their tradition of celebrating carnival!

Here in Bordeaux, it is definitely celebrated - maybe not as crazy or extensive as other parts of Europe, but it's colorful and fun. A time to push away the winter grayness. This festival makes for a great excuse for a parade! At the maternelle (Pre-school) they often marked the holiday with a Carnaval parade of the students.  Always fun and bright - I loved the fact that the school would pick a theme and the teachers and students would make their own costumes!  You may remember reading about it in this post -HERE .

This year, we decided to go to Bordeaux and watch the Parade & the celebration in town - Les Carnaval des deux Rives.  This year's theme was celebrating China.  It was fun, colorful and even though there were tons - yes, thousands of people - a nice way to spend an afternoon.  This is also what I love about living here - the kids get to experience different cultural celebrations.  

It was also fun to see it how many children & families came dressed up to celebrate the occasion.  The festival organizers held several workshops ahead of time for groups & families to create masks, kites and hats to all wear during the festivities.  Many groups walked in the parade and others just joined the end to follow along.  One could really celebrate this holiday any way they wished!! 

We placed ourselves in front of Place de la Bourse (okay-so the photographer in me wanted the backdrop of my photos to be the beautiful historic buildings!) and waited.  The parade began at 2:15 pm from the center of Bordeaux and wound it's way out of town and then along the quai toward the Pont Pierre.  We were located mid-way on the parade route.  This seemed to also be the area where several groups joined the parade to only walk half the distance - which was a benefit for us as we got to see them prepare ahead of time.

Patiently (or sometimes, not so patiently) waiting for the parade

My youngest and myself

A group practicing and getting ready before joining the parade.

Loved the Chinese hats made from umbrellas

A costumed couple walked through town before the parade - many people asked them to stop for photos!

Finally -We could see the parade coming with the Bird kites and balloons.

Bordeaux celebrates the 50th anniversary of Diplomatic relations with China

Everyone having fun

Fun & bright! - Lots of Chinese Dragons

The head....

& the tail...

Loved the stunningly beautiful kites!  Amazing !

Groups danced and played music

Lots of confetti thrown

Fun colors

Loved this little guy who carried this dragon!

A more traditionally dressed - Carnaval couple

Up on stilts - Chinese style!

Loved this mechanical dragon - complete with smoke & a  loud Roar!

These cranes were stunning to watch as they "flew" through to music and smoky effect..Very graceful.

Complete with a Panda!

My girls threw confetti and also benefited from receiving it!

Another float celebrating Bordeaux's relations with China

These guys danced and swirled with their dragon!

The Dragon Dance

More colorful floats

Another float & the thousands of people!

People following the parade

We opted not to follow the parade across the Pont Pierre (The historical bridge crossing to the right side of the river) where they were finishing with the traditional Carnaval ceremony.  Looking at the paper this morning - I'm sort of glad we didn't - The bridge itself was full (and I mean FULL) of people tightly packed as they made their way to the other side.

It was nice to take our fond memories of this afternoon and head off for a snack in a warm restaurant!

Hope everyone enjoyed Carnaval - Bordeaux Style!!

It's time for Carnaval!! - French school style...

Carnaval at the Maternelle

 It’s apparently a tradition to celebrate Carnaval (Carnival) in French schools (Maternelle & Elementary).  This fun occasion is when all the kids dress up and parade around. I equate it to the Spring-time Halloween but without going door to door to get candy.   For the Maternelle, parents were invited to come for the last hour of school and watch the parade and afterwards share a snack with them.  This was done on the last Friday before vacation.  I think the exact date of  Carnival celebration is closer to mid-March – but with our Winter vacation falling the first 2 weeks of March, this event was pushed up this year.  Our town has a separate Carnaval parade and family celebration coming up at the end of vacation on the 16^th and the City of Bordeaux is celebrating it’s Carnival on Sunday March 17^th.

What I love about this is that the kids and the teachers make their costumes for carneval .  This year the Maternelle celebrated with the theme of “Faire Peur” – or to make afraid or to scare – for the kids they were told they were going to scare away Winter!  What a fun theme!  It was so impressed with how creative these teachers were in making the costumes.  It’s also nice as a parent to not have to go out and buy a costume just for a hour celebration.  (At the elementary level, they have a party at the end of the school day without parents – but in costumes – enjoying getting dressed up and of course enjoying candy!).

For my daughter’s class – the boys were Dragons and the girls Witches.  You can see from the photos that giant paper bags were used for the costume.  I learned that my 5 year old and her class painted their own costumes and then taped on the black designs following a model.  They then stapled together colored construction paper and cut out a ring to create their witches hat.  I think they turned out wonderful !

Other classes were monsters & cobwebs …so darn cute!

   

And yes, I think they did scare away Winter….the first part of this Winter break has been very Spring like and sunny.  (Then again it is March – but it’s so nice to see the sun again after months of rain and clouds!).