Don't Rain on My Carnival Tropical!

I had a very New York moment here in Paris. It was weird and surprising and fun, as any good New York moment might be.

I stumbled upon the Carnival Tropical parade!

I still don't really know what was going on. I woke up, went to run some errands, and BOOM! Drums and bands and floats and scantily clad women dancing in the streets. Not what you usually think of when you think of Paris.

Errands didn't get done, and I'm glad that I bring my camera with me everywhere I go on days like this.

It was so fun and festive and sunny and happy. What could possibly go wrong?

Oh.

That's right.

Silly me.

We are in Paris.

It got dark enough for the street lights to come on, and the rain came down so hard it hurt. I think technically, that might be hail when rain hurts.

Just for good measure, we got some nice streaks of lightning...and what remained of the crowd went wild.

It was a fantastic parade anyway.