It is the time of carnavals and celebrations to prepare for the coming of Lent. A time to drink, eat and be merry before having to toe the line, a Catholic holiday. I’ve seen some of the celebrations in New Orleans and one in Nice, that city being close to Italy, and I always thought that someday I might see the celebrations in Rio de Janereo but I never thought I would see a parade complete with costumes and confetti in Switzerland. I just happened to be there visiting family during this time and we went to the parade in a beautiful city called Bellinzona to see it. This is the part of Switzerland, Ticino, that is near Italy which I’m sure led to the carnaval celebrations. Switzerland sort of puzzles me. They do have an old Swiss language but the people living near Germany speaks German, those by France French, and those by Italy Italian. It’s almost like they are suburbs of the country they are nearest. Anyway, I digress.

Even one of the two castles in the town were wearing a mask.

There was a cute little show put on that my grandchildren enjoyed.

A conga line caterpillar.

One of the highlights for the children was spraying that string stuff that comes out of a can. Everyone in the parade was covered with it. Here is my three year old grandson joyously spraying some on his brother’s head.

Many floats in the parade had people throwing confetti. I found some inside my clothes when I undressed that night and even some in the baby’s diaper who had been in a full body snow suit all day. It was all over the floor at my son’s house that night and I found some in the pocket of my coat when I got back to Paris.

One of the many costumed participants in the parade. By the way, the best day to go is on Sunday at 1:30 PM as there are floats and bands.

This being Switzerland, I’m sure the mess on the street was cleaned up in no time.

This was the largest float based on an old Channel Perfume ad where women opened windows and yelled, Egoist, the name of a perfume. All of the performers were men. They also called it Ti-Chinel, a play on the name of Ticina.
There were several floats that appeared to be either anti-American or anti-oil based, I think, on the economy which isn’t doing that well in Europe either. In any case, I enjoyed sharing in the celebration with everyone there. And Bellinzona is a beautiful city with not one but two castles. I had never heard of it before.

The windows of Lavin were a surprise to me. You don’t expect to see pigeons as part of the decoration. They looked liked real pigeons to me (although stuffed), but well kept ones with shiny feathers and maybe manacures.

I like these tennis shoes, as does the pigeon.

If there were more pigeons this could be a scene from The Birds.

Looking for something to eat.

The mannequins are either enjoying the sun or screaming about the pigeons.

The covered passage ways on Rue du Rivoli are full of shops but I like it best when the sun is shining.

The sun pouring through the columns on a very cold but sunny day.

This bike was outside the Hotel Meurice. I’m thinking that guests staying there can use this one and others.

A cafe with comfy chairs outside in the sun and red curtains behind.

I bet there is a really cool apartment behind this door with a fabulous view of the Tuleries Garden across the way.

A view of the pavement of Rue du Rivoli heading down towards the Louvre Museum.

Place de la Concorde at the end of the Tuleries Garden is a huge area. If you cross it, the Champs Elysees starts and continues on to the Arch de Triumph-a long walk.

One of the very ornate light posts there.

The Egyptian Obelisk, the oldest object in Paris. It was a gift from Egypt after a Frenchman was the one to discover the meaning of the Rosetta stone so Egyptian hieroglyphics could be interpreted. Or maybe it was just one of many art object Napoleon brought from Egypt. I also heard that Josephine said to Napoleon before he left for Egypt to bring her a “little” obelisk from there and that this was what was the result. It was, as you might imagine, a huge undertaking to get it down the Nile River and up the Seine to Paris and then to put it in place.

This fountain looks much better when it is running in the summer.

This photo give you an idea of the size of Place de la Concorde. That’s la Madeleine in the very back.

Angelina in Paris is the home of probably the best hot chocolate in the world.

A section of the interior. It was started in 1901 by a chef from Vienna.

A photo of a cup of that hot chocolate topped with fresh whipped cream, as if it needed more. After a cup of this, you aren’t hungry for the rest of the day.

Some pastries there in case you are feeling a little hungry.

These are their biggest selling pastry called Mont Blanc. It is made of chestnut cream but is a little too sweet for me. Almost nothing is too sweet for me but I really had trouble finishing one the only time I tried one.

I love looking at old prints and paintings. You can really see what things were like hundreds of years ago. There are some really interesting paintings in the Carnavalet Museum showing Paris as it was in the past.

This is a section of a painting of Geneveve, the patron saint of Paris. The hill behind her is Montmartre. You can see how high it is which isn’t apparent anymore with buildings blocking the view and you can also see all of the windmills which once were abundant there.

This is a photo of some people having a hot drink-I like the cats on their little cushion too. Once coffee, tea and hot chocolate became a more common drink, they had to find suitable cups to drink them from which led to the business of making making china and tea and coffe pots, not to mention coffee and tea shops and, my personal favorite, chocolate shops.

In case you ever wondered what Napoleon III looked like, here he is. He started the use of mascara, but on his mustache, which led to women using it on their eye lashes. A lot could be told about a man politically by how he wore his facial hair or side burns.

This is a painting of a scene from the time of the Commune in Paris when the city was being invaded by the Prussians. A man named Gambetta (there is a metro stop named after him) was escaping by balloon before they reached this part of Paris. I took the photo to show that the bare hill behind the balloon was what is now the hill leading up to Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. There was another building on top then. In fact, to many of the working class people, Sacre Coeur was a sort of insult to them representing the past and how cruelly they were treated. I didn’t know this before but found out the 20,000 people were killed during this time, mostly the poor fighting to keep Paris from the Prussians, and then the French in power after Napoleon III resigned. A bad time in the history of Paris.