A global archive of independent reviews of everything happening from the beginning of the millennium
Read our Copyright Notice click here
For publication dates click here
Carnaval de Nice, 2025
I know the king of the oceans. I saw him at six years old being caught by a local and stuffed in a duffle bag, from a stormy sea before the shingle beach of the Hotel Beau Rivage, which used to be at the front of its block, from which we had descended for an early morning walk.
I would restore him if I could.
When a masked figure makes what might be a trident sign to me I carry on with my photos, smiling at the tourist who nearly walked into shot.
As I pass the figure I do not smile, look or acknowledge as I drop a valueless coin.
I know. Au carnaval, the hierachies are reversed. My parents met in this city.
Pierre Rozet, 1680, Palais Lascaris - the only birdwing
epinette of its kind
The most ornate guitar - the centre one
- is from 1650
Mostly from the Gauthier bequest of musical
instruments
The aristocratic house of Lascaris-Vintimille ended in
the Revolution
After the model of
d'Alexis Massa (1875) for the first carnival chariot of La Ratapignata. We are
now 150 years on.
PALAIS LASCARIS
Reviewed by ANDRE BEAUMONT
Palais Lascaris is a challenge. It is a Baroque palace, the only noble house to survive in its 17th century form in Nice and an historic monument. It has the second largest collection of musical instruments in France. As the local modern art museum, MAMAC, is closed for rebuilding, it is hosting an exhibition of modern art, L'ombre, le reflet, l'écho, of a very few artists from that nearby institution, all very recent works which are scattered through the Baroque rooms, as are the musical instruments of four centuries and the art of the 17th and 18th centuries. It draws Nice history together with ease but otherwise it is seemingly impossible - just at this juncture in time - to draw a common thread. Perhaps that is the point. We are artists. I like it.
Ascend or descend
You will get somewhere
It is not a pity that as the carnival ends I shall have a flight to take?
Sleep well if you are an octopus
So glass roots and so Dutch .... and by the same artist
If you ain't got a fiddle, you ain't got a band so get yourself a kit fiddle
You would need a catalogue to do all the attributions
The remorse of Saint Peter - Anonymous
Anonymous is better in carnival, you'll agree
Finally there is a room devoted to the history of the carnival. I know I have been afar too long - since before the trams - and have a lot to span.
In 1811 Napoleon gave the city of Nice a new coat of arms as only his arms could bear an eagle - it was never used
A man who had conquered fear, he feared the people round here; he thought they were bandits. En route to exile in Elba he asked to be conveyed on a British frigate. On his escape from Elba he avoided Antibes, too, where he had been imprisoned during the Revolution.
It has a king of the oceans
The carnival has been runing DESpi 1873, the crown is that of the rightful ruler, the ducal house of Savoie with its red eagle, the language here and there that of Nissa
Louise Marie Christine de Savoie with her dogs, 1839, on permanent loan to Palais Lascaris
In carnival the hierarchies are reversed
At times the symbol of contestation
At the carnival of 1875 la Ratapignata was born, head held not down but up, with wings extended like the red eagle