Dunkerque carnival again (2014) - by kerouac2
Mar 6, 2014 20:05:57 GMT
Post by Deleted on Mar 6, 2014 20:05:57 GMT
Okay, I've been there twice before and made reports about it, but frankly as our rather grim (but not very cold) winter comes to an end, I felt a need to see something festive and colourful as February came to an end. The TGV to Dunkerque from Paris only takes 2 hours in spite of 3 or 4 stops along the way, and the ticket was less than 30€ so I decided to go. I knew that the "Basse-Ville" celebration was taking place on Saturday, and even though it is not the most impressive, it is the first one that I ever saw. It is a local joyous event with few tourists, whereas the big event that takes place on Mardi Gras itself is crawling with tourist, mostly Japanese for some reason. I suppose that it is also crawling with Belgians since the border is less than 20 kilometres away, but for some reason I have trouble distinguishing them from the locals.
The "bandes" (gangs... or krewes if you are from Louisiana) always start at 3 p.m.
It had been raining all morning, but the rain stopped just before the procession.
It had been raining all morning, but the rain stopped just before the procession.
