French parades

ok, I'll give it to the French, that can do some really awesome parades.
This time of year they have tons of them.  There's, of course, Carnivale...there's the big one in Nice that lasts a week, then each little ville has their own.  The cool thing is there's always the huge clown float and on the last carnival parade they set him on fire (something about symbolizing their overthrowing of the monarchy).

Then there's the Mandelieu Mimosa festival - turns out a mimosa is a tree - not ONLY a flavorful cocktail.

And the Menton Lemon Festival - I wasn't able to go to it last year but heard it was really cool, so made sure I made it this year.  During the parade there's  bubbles, confetti, and silly string flying everywhere...I feel real sorry for guys who have to clean all that up.  But what's really cool about this parade is that everything is made out of citrus fruit - all the floats and the garden has these huge orange/lemon structures.  This year's theme was different cultures.