The French Riviera Carnival celebrates the Olympics and popular culture figures

MENTON, France (AP) — While much of Europe prepares for the solemn weeks leading up to Easter, the holiday is just getting started on the French Riviera.

The Mediterranean city of Menton showed off its abundant citrus fruits and celebrated the upcoming Olympics in Paris with a parade on Sunday. Statues of athletes made of lemons and oranges adorn the streets and parade floats.

Nice, the capital of the French Riviera, opened the carnival season on Saturday night with a parade of extravagant lights and floats, including a parade featuring “Star Wars” Luke Skywalker as king and Marilyn Monroe as queen dressed as Spider-Woman.

Both festivals on France's Mediterranean coast derive from the medieval Mardi Gras tradition of putting on lavish public displays for visiting European nobility. In past years, carnivals have also mocked politicians and public figures.

But the marches in Nice and Menton avoided divisive topics and instead focused on recognizing achievements in film, music, art and sports.

“We wanted to pay homage to the Olympic Games because Paris will host them,” said Christophe Guéna, artistic director of the Menton Limon Festival, known locally as “Fête du Citron.”

The theme of the 90th Lemon Festival was “From Olympia to Menton”. Ten carriages drove with tennis, rugby and badminton players, a boxer, a swimmer, an equestrian athlete and a surfer named John Lemon. The crowd was so large that it doubled the local population of 33,000.

In each cart that drove through Les Jardins Bioves park in Menton, about three tons of fruit were tied to metal scaffolding in an Olympic-themed shape. In addition to representations of contemporary athletes, there was one of Greek goddesses of victory and others of discus throwers and javelin throwers.

Menton, located between the southern French Alps and the Mediterranean, was once a large citrus-producing region, but today it has only 15 companies. More than 140 tons of citrus used in the floats came from Spain.

“The lemons we produce locally are not enough for the festival,” said Maren Krenke, events manager at the Menton Tourist Office. “Honestly, we would rather have people try our lemons than see them on display.”

King Louis XIV of France enjoyed Menton lemons, drinking their juice and bathing in their oils, according to local legend. In Nice, mechanical dolls of Luke Skywalker and Marilyn Monroe were crowned with flashing lights, and were applauded with shouts and confetti when they were placed in the central square while the “Star Wars” theme played.

In keeping with the theme of this year's parade, the King and Queen will oversee their subjects and other pop culture figures until the end of the month, when they will be cremated and buried. Barbie, Wednesday from “The Addams Family” and Indiana Jones are some of the other characters featured on the floats.