This past Sunday, February 14, was a three-in-one holiday here. I've already written about how the French don't really "do" Valentine's Day (much), but we did manage to find a spot in Belleville where two holiday parades (of sorts) merged into on.
First, we had a bit of the Lunar New Year celebration:
Then, it was on to "Carnival", with some of the Belgian "Géants" which I thought were rather interesting:
I have to say, as parades go and compared with what I'm used to in an American parade (marching bands, parade floats and baton twirlers), this parade wasn't much. There were a few small brass bands and some decent drumming groups playing some good carnival dance beats. Mostly it seemed to be a lot of people in self-made costumes or NO costumes just walking by us.
However, besides the giants, there were a few notable attractions I liked:
I think this blue cat head is going to give me nightmares; it looks like Alice in Wonderland's Cheshire Cat on crack.
This big puppet seemed inspired by a Tim Burton movie.
And here was the one and only hommage to Valentine's Day.
