Cannes during the International Film Festival

Cannes has an incredible number of vacation activities. Our favorite included visiting the International Film festival, exploring beautiful Cannes and Nice, visiting amazing Eze and Vileneuve-Loubet, enjoing world class museums in Antibes, Nice and Biot.

We stayed in a small resort town Villeneuve-Loubet half-way between Nice and Cannes. Located in the heart of the French Riviera, Villeneuve-Loubet affords the advantages of both seaside resort and countryside town. Actually there are two Villeneuve-Loubet’s: at the confluent river Loupet Mardaric, the old town of Villeneuve-Loubet sits atop a little hill while the new city spreads out right to the Mediterranean.

Usually the Festival starts the second Wednesday in May and ends on the fourth Sunday. However, this year 2002 the festival moved up one week due to the French elections. We’ve had awesome experience!

Quick Tips:

150 years ago Cannes was nothing more than an unimportant fishing village. Since then it has become an elegant city known round the world and attracts an international clientele.

The places of interest in Cannes are:
- the city on high (Haute ville)
- the Old port
- rue Meynadier
- the Palace of Festivals
- the Croisette.

Best Way To Get Around:

French Riviera has very good and inexpensive train connection. From Villeneuve-Loubet Nice is 20 min. by train; Antibes 15 min, Cannes 20 min, Eze 40 min, Monaco 1 hour, Ventimiglia 1.5 hour.

Best Things Nearby:
Half of the town is covered in forests (century old oaks, maritime pines, mimosas) making it the most wooded of all the seaside towns. The typical Provençal old village will show you the real roots of this town with its tiny streets, flowered balconies, façades in the earthy colors of Provence, and the castle with its watchtower of 33 meters high (the castle, which was once Francoise the First residence, is not open to the public). Erected in the 9th century around its castle, this picturesque Provençal village has given hospitality to many personnages (Romee the Great, Rene d’Anjou, Francois the First, Marshall Petain) and personalities (Charlie Chaplin, Charles Aznavour, Phillippe Clay, Mick Micheyl). This town is also the birthplace of Auguste Escoffer, famous cook and creator of the Melba Peach. His birth house has become the Museum of Culinary Art; the Museum of History & Art, and St. Marc church are another places worth visiting.

Best Things About the Resort:
We have mixed feelings about this resort. Location is great, resort looks fantastic, but…You should be prepared to pay for everything (in addition to timeshare exchange costs); they charge for linen; for cleaning; security deposit around $500 etc. Our bedroom window faced busy noisy street with trains and cars running 24 by 7. There is no any kind of activities at resort (introduction meeting, organized excursions etc.). Staff is very slow to response to any kind of request. Resort affords to its visitors 200 yards of pebble beach.

Resort Experience:
Villeneuve-Loubet Plage is dominated by a gigantic marina, constructed in the 1970th to a design of Andre Minangoy encircled by four unusual pyramids – ultramodern resort complex Marina Baie des Anges.

• Unit Type: 1 Bedroom
• Activities: Not Available
• Amenities: Fair
• Unit Satisfaction: Poor
• Family Friendliness: Poor
• Service: Poor

The old town is known as Le Suquet after the hill on which it stands. Back in the 11th century it become the property of the Iles de Lérins monks. They built a castle with a watchtower and Chapelle de Ste-Anne. The panorama at the top is breath-taking with the whole city below surrounded by the blue sea and the Lérins Islands. Following narrow streets down to the market of ForviIle and through the plane tree lined streets of Liberté, you'll arrives back at sea level.

We specifically booked a unit at Marina Baie des Anges resort May 18 – 25 because the 55th Cannes International Film Festival was held at this time. Usually the Festival starts the second Wednesday in May and ends on the fourth Sunday. However, this year 2002 the festival moved up one week due to the French elections. We’ve had awesome experience!

This palace (called the Bunker by some journalists) capable of housing all kinds of assemblies, has propelled Cannes into becoming the second most popular convention town in France. The International Film Festival is held here, as well as, the MIDEM (congress of record producers), concerts of classical music, dance and theater. There are even four casinos.

This is one of the most famous promenades in the world. The fine sand beaches below it covered with parasols, changing color with each change of concession (the Majestic, the Carlton, to name a few). For three kilometers following the curve of the bay one can see flowering gardens, lawns planted with palm trees, umbrella pines and other trees all the way to Port Canto, Palm Beach and a sea water health spa.

The "Iles de Lérins" is a small archipelago just off the coast of Cannes and part of the commune of Cannes. The archipelago has the two main islands of Sainte-Marguerite and Saint-Honorat and the two micro-islands of Tradelière and St-Féréol. Boat excursions to the islands leave from Cannes (15 minutes to Saint-Honorat and 30 minutes to Sainte-Marguerite). Ile Sainte-Marguerite is the larger, and nearer, island. The island is covered by a lovely forest of Allepo pine and eucalyptus, with wide paths criss-crossing the length and breadth. The port area, where the ferry lands, has cafés and restaurants, and it's a short walk to the Fort Royal where you can see the now-bare little cell where the Man in the Iron Mask was incarcerated. Ile Saint-Honorat is the smaller, further, island, an additional 15 minutes by boat from the ferry landing of Sainte-Marguerite. Although small, the walks are still nice, and there's the Cisterian abbey to visit, which includes a gift shop of locally produced products.