A visit to Cannes
Cannes is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a very busy tourist attraction and is the host of the famous annual Cannes Film Festival and Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival. The city is famous for its luxury shops, restaurants, and hotels. On November 3, 2011 the city played host to the G20 conference for industrialized nations.
A beach scene before the tourists arrive. I remember trying to get close for a photograph and I was told to not step on the sand. I guess they wanted it pristine for the beach crowd.
I guess this section of the beach was not as private as you can see lots of footprints in the sand.
There were a lot of ships in port today. It was early enough that the beach was still not very crowded. I think it would have been fun to have spent the day on the beach.
The famous Ritz Carleton is designed in a classic French style. The hotel overlooks the Bay of Cannes and has its own exclusive beach restaurant and pier. Just for fun I looked up the rates to stay here. During the summer a standard rate is 810 Euros ($1,215 CND). Of course one could opt for the king bed superior sea view suite for 4,100 Euros ($6,150) or go all out for a 2 bedroom executive prestige sea view suite for 6,565 Euros (9,848 CND). I hope those rates include breakfast!
A close-up look at the details.
We didn't spend a lot of time in the town- so I only had time to walk up and down the main street which is the Boulevard de La Croisette. Still I saw some interesting people and enjoyed being in the town.
Like Nice, there was a beautiful Merry-go Round.
Just like the other towns there were lots of people hanging out with their dogs.
In 1983, a new, much bigger Palais des Festivals et des Congres was built to host the famous annual Cannes International Film Festival. It has been nicknamed "The Bunker". The festival had its origins in the late 1930's when the french minister of national education set up an international cinematographic festival. In 1947, the film festival was held as the "Festival du film de Cannes" where films from sixteen countries were presented. The festival was not held in 1948 and 1950 due to budget issues and in 1968 was halted in solidarity with students and labour on strike throughout France. During the 1970s two committees were set up. One was to choose which French films would be represented and the other committee would choose the foreign films. Up until that date, the different countries picked which films would represent them in the festival. Given the massive media exposure the non-public (invitation only) festival is attended by many movie stars and is a popular venue for producers to launch their new films and sell them to the movie distributors who come from all over the world.
A close up view of one of the windows of the Palais des Festivals et des Congres.
One of the local artists.
The water ski school. You can see a couple of yachts in the water.
Checking each other out.
France is a very dog (if not people) friendly place. Actually I did find the people in the south of France much friendlier than in Paris. In a recent Conde Nest Traveler survey, Paris, France was voted the 4th unfriendliest city in the world, Marseille, France the 5th unfriendliest and Cannes, France the second unfriendliest city. Cannes was called a "European Vegas" with unfriendly locals. I know that the beach staff weren't very friendly but I really wasn't in Cannes long enough to notice whether locals seemed unfriendly. As an aside, one person responding to the survey said that everyone was downright rude and unhelpful in Paris which I did not find to be the case at all.
These locals were very friendly. |
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Comments
I am one of those who disagree that the people of Paris are rude and/or unfriendly. They may well be somewhat abrupt and rushed, but in what big city is that not the case?
When we were in Paris many years ago I was showing Pam how to use the electronic route-selectors in a Metro station, and a very rushed man in a business suit asked in English if he could help. When I started to tell him, in French, what we were doing, he blurted out in English: "I don't have time for you to practice your French! Where do you wish to go?"
So... abrupt, yes; but I didn't consider him rude and I appreciated that he stopped to assist us.
In Cannes, I would expect to find more rudeness than in Paris, because of all the fabulously wealthy residents and visitors; why be polite to the middle-class masses?
I enjoyed your pictures today, especially the merry-go-round! Keep those blogs coming!