There was yet another snowstorm in Ottawa but the weather was gorgeous in Nantes last week, that much I know.
I’m not sure what else happened, since I was either passed out in bed, either completing assignments and feverishly translating (frenetically and with a high body temperature) documents I had stupid enough to take on because every night, I thought I was no longer sick, when, in fact, I was.
Oh, I got sick alright. Not the typical Ottawa sniffles that never quite goes away or one of the many early pandemic COVID scares that ended up being just a mild cold and a negative test. I hadn’t been this sick since Mark’s daycare days. I didn’t even catch real COVID with symptoms when Mark had it in 2022 or when my mum had it in fall 2023!
At least, I have a sense of timing. I got sick once in Nantes, not backpacking alone. Being sick on the road is a bit scary and very inconvenient—been there, done that a few times.
I didn’t get a heads-up—I was fine on Sunday, then I started to feel very cold and I went to bed with a fever. I couldn’t get up on Monday, I slept all day. I thought I was better on Tuesday and Wednesday just to do the whole “can’t get up” all day on Thursday.
I hate sleeping through the day. I always feel there isn’t enough time to accomplish everything I need and want to do, so losing hours, days even, is a complete nightmare.
But I felt really, really sick. Well, feverish, mostly.
I dreamed a lot and no, I won’t bore you with detailed descriptions because I can’t remember anything fun, just that these dreams were vivid and vaguely unpleasant. At one point, on Tuesday or Wednesday, I ventured outside to buy a baguette that I may or may not eat. I walked back knowing that I had read the word “Carnaval” somewhere on a poster but then I thought I had dreamed the whole thing (well, not the baguette, it was on the kitchen table).
Was I stuck in an interworld? Somewhere between Brazil and France? Or just in the interworlds of a 40°C fever?
The fever went down on Saturday. I went out feeling almost okay until I heard drumming and spotted a Brazilian flag being waved around.
What the…
Right, Carnival.
It wasn’t a hallucination. Nantes was getting ready for the 2025 night Carnival parade.
Carnaval was a thing when I was a kid—I remember balloons, floats, and my mum cursing confetti at one point before Easter. Then, of course, I forgot about it for the last two decades and there was no Carnival during COVID or the years after because there was no money.
But Carnival is back, and Carnival is very, very popular in Nantes. I went out at 9 p.m. to take pictures of the 16 floats before the parade—the theme was “holidays around the world,” with Chinese New Year, the Carnaval de Québec, Halloween, etc. Next thing you know, I was stuck in a French bloco. It was so crowded I couldn’t get out. May as well enjoy the party and parade, then.
I think I’m feeling better. I think Carnival is my theme this year too.
