Cannes Film Festival | schwingeninswitzerland

After Cannes and Antibes on our giant whirlwind tour of the Côte d’Azur, we checked into our hotel in Villefranche. After dropping off our bags and trying to find a parking spot in the very steep and very crowded streets of Villefranche, we walked along the Boulevard Princess Grace de Monaco to Vieux Nice (old town Nice).

After so much time in the car, it was great to walk and move around. It was a beautiful evening and the scenery was amazing. These were the views we’d been hoping for in the south of France, a rocky coast with clear water and a gorgeous blue sea.

We stopped and watched this boxer workout. It’s not a bad spot for a workout, I’d probably be distracted by the view. I’m not sure who he is, but his t-shirt was in Russian. Any ideas?

Nice’s harbor was peaceful and the boats were a bit more modest than in Antibes.

Being from the US, I’ve never really understood the concept of renting a space on the beach. It’s common in the south of France. Most of the beaches are rocky so I guess it’s nice to have a lawn chair that you don’t have to lug around and waiters who will bring you cold drinks. Notice they even put down aisle-like mats so that you don’t have to touch the rocks! I guess everyone has different ways they like to experience nature. We have friends who like to tube down rivers with coolers tied to their tubes. To each their own.

We so busy sightseeing that we missed lunch and hadn’t eaten more than an apple since breakfast 12 hours earlier. Oops. By the time we arrived in Vieux Nice, we were ravenous. We headed to the Cours Saleya which has been Nice’s main market square since the middle ages. Filled with cafes that spill out onto the square, there were plenty of options so that we didn’t have to wait for a table.

Luckily for us, France is a great place to be hungry. We had a wonderful meal and gorged ourselves on French specialities. I had salad (Niçoise, how could I not when in Nice), oysters (they don’t serve them with Tabasco Sauce), and bouillabaisse. Near the sea, I felt pretty confident that the seafood would be good. It was better than good.

Vieux Nice is a tangled mishmash of ancient streets and alleyways. Strolling through them was a perfect way to end our amazing day in the south of France.

Picasso, Yachts And Ramparts In Antibes (schwingeninswitzerland.wordpress.com)
Yes We Cannes-ed (schwingeninswitzerland.wordpress.com)

We just returned from our whirlwind trip to the south of France over the holiday weekend. While we didn’t do much relaxing (there wasn’t much time as we were busy sightseeing everyday), we managed to see an incredible amount in a long weekend. I picked him up and we headed out of Geneva. Being a holiday weekend, the roads were pretty crowded (translate this to mean we hit a giant traffic jam and took back roads through the middle of nowhere France for about an hour in the dark), but we made it to near Orange where we spent the night. Driving late into the night had an upside, we woke up in the south of France. We woke up to this beautiful view of olive groves in the morning. Yeah baby! Let the vacation begin.

After downing more café au lait than anyone should be allowed to drink, we were on our way to the Côte d’Azur.

Cannes is home to little film festival, the Cannes International Film Festival. It is held for two weeks each May. During this time, the city is packed with film producers, celebrities and paparazzi. We decided to drive through Cannes and see what all the fuss was about. Having faithfully watched Entourage on HBO and seen the Cannes episode, he wanted to hang with Turtle.

Cannes is built around the Bay of Cannes and its palm lined seafront drive. We drove through Cannes toward the beach, passing tons of cafes, luxury boutiques and hotels.

We drove past the exclusive hotels lining the Boulevard de la Croisette across from the beach gawking. We weren’t the only ones. It took about an hour and a half to drive through the town. It wasn’t calming, but we didn’t mind. We were busy people watching.

Although celebrities like Eva Longoria, Sean Penn, Sasha Baron Cohen, Gerard Butler, Jennifer Connelly and Alec Baldwin were in Cannes, we only saw tourists gawking and film types barking into their cell phones. I guess that’s not entirely true, we also saw a few bodyguard types in suits with earpieces.

We saw signs of ridiculous wealth everywhere. Like Geneva’s Auto Show, there were some insane cars. I especially enjoyed how this one was parked next to a “No Parking” sign. I guess you can do that if you have a Rolls. If you do get towed, you can probably afford to get your car out of an impound lot.

It was hard to get good shots of the harbor, but it was filled with enormous yachts. Sorry these shots don’t do it justice. We decided that the best place to stay in Cannes is on a yacht off the coast and away from the crowds. If it is good enough for Puff Daddy (or whatever his name is now), it is good enough for us.