France: A festival of fests for Mardi Gras season in Provence

Most Americans associate Mardi Gras festivities with New Orleans and Rio de Janeiro, not with Nice, France. But the city in the Provence region in southern France puts on quite a Mardi Gras show. And nearby communities hold other festivals around that time too:

Nice (Feb. 18 through March 8): The exuberance of this Mardi Gras celebration will begin with the King of the Mediterranean’s lavish entrance -- accompanied this year by a queen -- to applause and rejoicing. Extravagant parades will feature floats decorated with gladiolas, daisies, roses, carnations and other flowers.

Lively street theater processions of musicians, dancers and grosses têtes-- characters walking on stilts and sporting enormous cardboard heads -- will entertain, night and day. On Mardi Gras itself, March 8, loyal subjects will walk his majesty to a fiery and resolute end to the Nice Carnival.

Info: Carnaval de Nice.

Menton (Feb. 18 through March 9): In this community near the Italian border, the season is celebrated with the Lemon Festival, or Fête du Citron. The festival features parades, music, costumes, fireworks and general merriment but with a citrus theme. At night, fairytale creatures and unsettling sounds rattle the illuminated Biovès Gardens.

Info: Fête du Citron.

Cannes: (Feb. 18-27): It takes 12 tons of mimosas – locally grown flowers, not the drink – to decorate the floats that lumber down the streets of Mandelieu-La Napoule on the outskirts of Cannes to the rhythm of brass bands. A fair amount of the fragrant shrub will be tossed to spectators during the several parades scheduled at the Mimosa Fest.

Info: Fête du Mimosa.