Carcassonne Adventure: Carnaval

Horns opened the festivities

There are some definite disadvantages to living and trying to sleep within earshot of the Dome and the Carnaval festivities. Oh to be young again.....sigh.

Color and movement

So I find myself at 1:40 in the morning awake and unable to get back to sleep, even with the soothing rhythmic pounding of the drums a barely a block away. So, I thought maybe I could make up for missed time. I have had some technical issues which started out as intermittent and then got worse. I think I may have to have a new laptop when I get back home. I actually looked at one here, but the keyboard is French and that will never do for an old gal who long ago learned to touch type. My issues still don't seem completely resolved, but let's hope all will be well until I get back to tech support.

This guy led the singing and chanting

Enough about that....today was Carcassonne's Carnaval. And as the paper advertised, watch out! I have never been to a Carnaval before, growing up in Protestant-land. We surely didn't celebrate it in Thurmont. I don't know what I expected, but I am still processing what I witnessed.

Part bird, part cave person, totally disguised

The confetti flew

I found confetti even in my shoes when I got home.

A touch of the pagan?

It was colorful, full of movement, interesting costumes and vaguely disturbing. I will let the photos speak for themselves.


Candies in the chamber pots

I wondered about all of the balloon-bosoms. Then I read in the paper that the "theme" was the ambiguity of gender. That explained a lot.


These characters were most intriguing.

More antics from the bird beaks.


Creepiest float I have ever seen

There is a cremation at the end of the parade through the streets. I honestly didn't feel like staying for it, but here's what I think happened. Mr. Carnaval is accused of various crimes against the populace, is tried, convicted and gets torched. I think this float is burned up.