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Posts from the ‘Carnaval Tropical de Paris’ Category

7
Jul

Carnaval Tropical de Paris 2013

PARIS IN JULY means that it must be summer – and summer means that it must be Carnival time.

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Yesterday, the annual Carnaval Tropical de Paris took place around place de la Nation.  Some 4,000 dancers in colourful costumes, dozens of floats and a cornucopia of drummers paraded through place de la Nation and then meandered for some 4.5 km through the 11th arrondissement.  This is one of the highlights of the Parisian summer and there is little to compete with it for colour, sound and cultural diversity.

I was there yesterday to savour it all.

Carnaval Tropical de Paris 2013:

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8
Jul

Carnaval Tropical 2012

LE CARNAVAL TROPICAL DE PARIS winds its way through the streets of the 11th arrondissement every year in July.

And this year was no exception. Yesterday, it took over four hours for the carnival to process from la Place de la Nation to le Boulevard Voltaire, la Place Léon Blum, l’Avenue Parmentier, la Rue du Chemin Vert, le Boulevard de Ménilmontant, l’Avenue Philippe Auguste and back to la Place de la Nation.

Sounds of the Carnaval Tropical:

With the theme of Le sixième continent, the Sixth Continent, some 4,000 people from Martinique, Guadeloupe, Mayotte, La Réunion, French Polynesia, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, China, Vietnam and other corners of the globe took part. This was a wonderful celebration of cultural diversity.

The carnival is organised by the Fédération du Carnaval Tropical and the Direction Générale à l’Outre-Mer, part of the Paris city authority concerned with supporting the welfare and cultural traditions of Parisians born overseas.

I went to la Place de la Nation to see this spectacle and I can share with you some of the sights and sounds.

More Sounds of the Carnaval Tropical:

More Sounds of the Carnaval Tropical:

The best that can be said about our weather this summer is that it hasn’t been great but even so, we don’t usually expect a sudden tropical storm like the one that descended without warning yesterday afternoon.

Undaunted though, the carnival continued with everyone still in high spirits. Even as the last of the procession was making its soggy way into the distance the sounds of the crowd were as enthusiastic as ever.

More Sounds of the Carnaval Tropical: