The Art of Cannes, A Glam Weekend

Cannes is the Riviera’s top resort, civilized and cool, with perfect sandy beaches and exotic clubs, the ideal starting point for Cote d’Azur hedonism and a plateau de fruits de mer.

It’s busy and expensive in August, with the boutiques on the Croisette, just like the Ferraris and Porsches outside, jammed. The glamour emanates from the Film Festival in May creating an aura of glitz that doesn't evaporate. Even in winter, Cannes is a good place to be.

How to get here
There are countless flights into Nice all year round (2hrs from the UK), and Cannes is just 35km along the coast. A shuttle bus from the airport terminal will drop you in the centre of Cannes one hour later for €12. A cab takes half an hour for €80 (a good deal if there are three or more) while the helicopter costs the same per head but takes only six minutes. Take your pick.

For longer weekends, the green alternative is to get the train via Eurostar then France's excellent superfast TGV network all the way from St Pancras direct to Cannes, changing at Paris or Lille and possibly Marseille. Trains travel at up to 200 mph and are comfortable and quiet. Check with Rail Europe for fares and the myriad of discounts available. Onward travel from Paris to the rest of France - even as far south as the Riviera - is now viable given the speed and frequency of French trains.

OK. WE’RE HERE.

The famous beachfront Croisette is not only lined with palms, but discreet shops selling every global superbrand a Russian oil zillionaire could wish for. Poolside cocktails in the glitzy hotels will set you back €20 minimum.  The beach is divided up by the hotels and you pay for that too. Waiter-delivered drinks here can run up a bill you really don't want, so take your own water and fruit. In summer, it’s all impossibly glam, the place to be, with serried loungers and umbrellas, towels from hot and cold running staff, and quite simply, you have to pay for it. Quieter in midwinter, (i.e. deserted) when the mistral can arrive and rain stops play, is cheaper.

The centre of Cannes has two shopping streets, both parallel to the seafront, different but equally attractive. Rue d'Antibes has excellent clothes shops, jewellers and upscale household emporia (Bathroom Graffiti is good) with side streets drifting off into sales land. There’s a small daily market, on Place Gambetta, and between the two is Rue Teissere, where the Irish bar Morrisons is a collecting point for expats, particularly during major sporting events.

More food oriented is the pedestrianised Rue Meynadier which leads to Cannes' covered market, Forville, one of the best on the Riviera. This is where the best produce in Provence is brought to be sold alongside bread, fish, cheese, honey, herbs and flowers. It’s a riot of colour, smell and sound and is especially good at weekends. (Mondays, the market is a brocante). The surrounding bars and cafes are good too.

STAY WHERE?
There’s no shortage of hotels in Cannes. There are hundreds of places, and twice as many apartments to rent, as any trawl through websites like laterooms.com will testify.

Beach bums should head for Palm Beach where apartments in summer can be shared for reasonable rents. Nightclubbers congregate around the Croisette, and if you want to save money and don't mind a walk, then there are bargains to be had in Le Cannet.

The busy (and therefore expensive) times are all of August, two weeks in May for the Film Festival and then odd weeks for media festivals MIPtv, MIPCOM, and MIDEM in April, October and January. There’s a buzz around all of these, and hotels charge more, but at the end of each week-long festival – Thursdays mostly - delegates leave en masse and rates return to normal.

The Film Festival is seriously expensive, even in so-called “quiet” years as 2009 was, as this is when all property owners expect to maximize their rents. Try out of town (along the railway line) if you can’t find any place. The trains are fast and frequent from Nice and Cannes station is right in the middle of town.

On the seafront, the most eloquent monuments to Cannes glamour are the Martinez, Carlton and Majestic Hotels, all three filled to the brim at festival time, and all three have undergone massive renovations in the past few years. Just as well established but without the same ‘front’ is the sister operation to the Majestic, the Hotel Gray d'Albion, a discreet modern block off the Croisette, but luxurious inside. The 200 rooms and suites have just been renovated, all are fitted with flat screen TV and wifi and bathrooms are modern and luxurious. Many have small balconies. The Gray has its own private beach out front and jetty for sporting activity. This is a Summit Hotel and is exceedingly well run, as testified by an ISO (International Standardization Organisation) certificate awarded to less than half a dozen French Hotels, and the consequence is that at any time of the day or night, you’ll be attended to no matter what you require. It’s not cheap but trawl the web for deals as it’s a very comfortable and central place to stay.

Facing the Gray’s front door, on Rue des Serbes, is the tiny Hotel Modern Waikiki, one of the cheapest in Cannes. Cheerfully run and slightly threadbare, this is a bed for the night place that The Weekender has been staying in for years, the very essence of cheap and cheerful and as a consequence very popular, but there always seems to be a room available.

REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL, 1, 2, 3….
(1)    The ‘Old Port’, and Le Suquet, on the hill above it, are worth exploring first. There’s petanque every day and evening, an antiques market every Saturday (sometimes Sunday too) and on summer evenings a semi-permanent display of amateur artworks. It’s a not unpleasant place to stroll. After you’ve walked around the dockside and examined which luxury yacht you’re going to buy try walking up one of the narrow streets to the Ramparts for a fine view of the city and the surrounding coast. Find Rue Saint Antoine to walk up, or down, and you will probably be seduced into having dinner there too, it’s packed with cosy little restaurants.

(2)     The nightlife in Cannes is legendary with clubs like Baoli and the Palais regarded as the best in summer. During the Film Festival all manner of places spring up along the beach – like outposts of London’s Soho House – but you have to be invited. Best bets are the hotel bars late on, the Martinez is always busy until the wee small hours and afterwards, if you’re still partying, find Le Petit Carlton, open till 4am for those who think more to drink at that time is a good idea.

(3)    The seascape isn’t just the domain of the millionaire yachties, a ferry service will take you out from the harbour to the Lerins Islands offshore; Ile Sainte-Margeurite - where you can picnic and wander the nature trails - or Ile Saint-Honorat – where Cistercian Monks inhabit the Abbey, producing a rather fine red wine which you can buy from their shop. Swimming in little coves, quiet walks among the vineyards. There are two restaurants for lunch too. 

LET’S DO LUNCH
Cheap
An institution in downtown Cannes, the Brasserie de Crillon (Rue Jean de Riouffe) has been serving cheap and cheerful scoff to tourists, locals and in-the-know festival delegates for years. This is steak-frites territory with carafes of house wine either inside where it used to be smoky and dark or the little pavement tables outside where you don’t just watch but generally become part of the hustle and bustle. Average omelettes and salads too. Very enjoyable.

Not so cheap
The snaking alleyway which leads off the old port, Rue Saint Antoine, is replete with restaurants that entice and seduce as you walk up the steps between them. Tiny places, candle lit at night, with tables for two perched on the steps. It’s a genuinely romantic tourist attraction, it gets busy (but not rammed like August evenings), and having tried most of them over the years, there’s nothing really to complain about. Average prices now, 2009, are about €40 to €50 per head, with a reasonable menu formula, wine and water. The Weekender has been going for years and finds very little to choose between them, even in winter when it’s quiet.

Blow out
Along Rue Felix Faure lie the shellfish emporia of Cannes, large open plan rooms serving endless plateau de fruits de mer to all and sundry. Huge mountains of ice covered in langoustines, mussels, lobster, crab, oysters, prawns, whelks, bulots, clams and tiny grey shrimp washed down with Alsace Pinot Blanc. They rarely take bookings and queues form.

The best is Astoux et Brun, at the corner of Rue Louis Blanc (“since 1953”). Costs are entirely dependent on market prices but don’t expect to have much change from €100 if you go the whole hog with decent wine.

WHAT’S YOURS?

Cannes is largely about ogling, gawping and being seen and all three can be accommodated over a drink at Caffe Roma (Square Merimee), sitting in prime position opposite the Palais de Festival, the old port, at the start of the Croisette. It’s the perfect place to meet, sip a kir or a beer as the sun is going down. There’s bustle and buzz all the time. By all means head off east to the more expensive and glitzy bars or west to the old port, but before dinner Caffe Roma is just right.

DINNER IS SERVED

There are many average-to-good places in Cannes itself, and The Weekender has had favourites over the years, but prices have skyrocketed. Felix, on the Croisette, used to be excellent. It’s changed hands and now it’s not.

All the lunchtime spots mentioned above are excellent at dinner too, and the small bistros off Rue Antibes near Place Gambetta can be good.

Out of town, the legendary Colmbe d’Or in St Paul de Vence (a good half hour car ride) retains a level of sophistication that hasn’t declined. The menu, written in what looks like crayon decades ago, is still largely the same, and features dishes where freshness and quality is all. The hors d’oeuvres, vegetables and a powerful aioli - with or without salt cod – are barely tampered with but the taste is vibrant. A slab is foie gras is served with aspic jelly and brioche, it needs nothing else. The mains are Provencal staples and the wines can be stratospheric but pride of place on the menu is given to the house wines which are excellent. And cheap.

In summer, there is no finer place to have dinner, or lunch, than the terrace, a fragrant garden overlooking the hillsides below. The tables are elegant, the sun shines, it is bliss. In winter, you should dine inside and gaze at the famous art collection, apparently paintings were given in lieu of cash to le patron Msr Roux many moons ago, and the walls are still lined with a great deal of quality art, although possibly the insurers have decreed that the more valuable Picassos and Mattisses should be hung somewhere slightly more secure. Certainly The Weekender was there the night a heavy metal collage (of musical instruments, no pun intended) fell off the wall onto a diner’s head and smashed on the floor. It’s now been restored and hangs again, this time encased more safely in Perspex.

The pool has a large bright red Alexander Calder construction and the entranceway is dominated by a giant thumb (Cesar). It’s a heady mix, not loved by all, some regard the food with disdain, but it’s a world class establishment for The Weekender, who has never found any grounds for complaint. Occasional celebrities too.

(More of the surrounding area’s art treasures can be found in the Weekend Guide to Nice).