A British expat in Nice: combat naval fleuri

It's the 14th July today, so that means it's Bastille Day! Oddly, given the number of years we've lived in France, this is the first time I've ever been here for Bastille Day; it had better live up to expectations!

Last night Villefranche had a parade of lit-up boats who threw flowers at the people waiting in the harbour (night time version of the Combat des Fleurs, if you ask me), followed by fireworks - which were awesome (pics above are from last night) - and dancing in the main square, where all who were taking part looked like they were having fun. I might post more pics later, but they're up on Flickr if you're really interested.

Tonight, Nice has a big firework display, and there's bound to be music and all sorts of things in Place Massena, so I'll see if I can persuade Paul we should go into town. The problem will be getting back, given the appalling standard of night-time public transport round here. We shall see.

(Oh and my jewellery sale is going well - I've sold 10 things since the beginning of the month, which is rather more than normal! Hopefully the rest of the month will be similarly good!)

Continuing the carnival theme - the UK should totally do carnival, you know - today was the combat naval fleuri here in Villefranche. Though I'm not sure I didn't miss something, since I saw no combat, per se... Perhaps it's named after the vicious competition amongst otherwise grown women for flowers on the quayside - honestly, I thought some of them were going to leave bruises as they attempted to grab their share!

Lots of fleurs though - the boats, owned by families that have been in Villefranche for generations - are decked out in bunches and bunches of flowers, which are slowly stripped in the course of the afternoon and thrown at the people watching. My bouquet, since I arrived early enough to be at the front, is clearly fabulous - I left after a while to let the less fortunate people have a chance. I'm just that nice ;-) Also, I feared getting pushed into the sea by those behind me. It looks cold.

So, anyway, flower boat photos: