For a fortnight in February, Nice switches over to carnival. Some twenty floats parade across Place Masséna, the flower battles take over the Promenade des Anglais, and the centre closes to traffic for every parade.
A centre closed on and off
Daytime parades and illuminated parades follow each other over nearly three weeks. For each one, the perimeter around Place Masséna and the Jardin Albert Ier is sealed, and the Promenade des Anglais is cleared for the flower battles.
The timings change from day to day, and the drop-off points move with the traffic plan. It is the kind of situation where you want a chauffeur who knows which access is open today.
From the airport, in the middle of carnival season
Nice airport is seven kilometres from the centre, but access along the Promenade is cut during the parades. Late-afternoon arrivals often land in the middle of one.
The chauffeur waits in the hall with a board bearing your name and tracks the flight: a delay changes nothing about the pick-up, and the route is fitted to whatever is open that day.
What we organise during the carnival
Many of our February journeys run between hotels in Nice, Cannes, Monaco or Antibes and the carnival perimeter, with a late return.
The van keeps the group in one vehicle, and the chauffeur stays directly reachable if you decide to leave before the parade ends.
Menton, next door, at the same time
Menton’s Lemon Festival runs over exactly the same period, some forty kilometres east: many of our clients take in both on the same trip.
The car stays at your disposal from one town to the next, with no parking to hunt for in two closed-off centres.
To organise your journeys during the carnival, give us the dates, the address and the number of passengers: you receive a firm price before confirming. See also our private driver in Nice and private driver in Menton pages.
Photo: Honeydew / Wikimedia Commons — CC BY-SA 3.0
