Cannes - Two Days Before the Film Festival

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This morning after breakfast we headed off on a day trip to Cannes. Once again we had decided to make the journey by bus so that we could see the sights along the way. Bernie had researched the bus to Cannes too and knew that we needed to catch the Bus 200 on the main street through town at Albert Rue. Damn it, we were in the wrong place for the bus again! We found a bus stop, but not one that Bus 200 stops at. At least we did find a map that showed the Bus 200 route; we just had to head back the way that we had come until we found the stop at Albert 1er. We have no idea what the difference is between a Rue and a 1er??!

Because the bus is so cheap there were lots of other tourists with the same idea to take a bus ride along the coast to Cannes. We were luck enough to score seats yesterday, but not so today. We had to stand for nearly half of the 90 minute trip. Well Bernie swung from the overhead grips while I managed to sort of half sit on the wheel arch between the seats situated over the wheel arch. It was a relief when two seats became vacant and we were finally able to sit in comfort.

When we arrived in Cannes the bus deposited us right on the square where the Saturday market was in full swing. Janet and Kerry would have loved this market - there was heaps of old bric-a-brac to browse through! The stall holders seemed to specialise in antique silver because every second stall featured an extensive array of silverware ... from teaspoons to trays and every imaginable piece of silverware in between. Beautiful stuff, but far too weighty to even consider getting back to Oz. Far too much work in maintaining silverware anyway!

From the market we made our way over to the harbour where we found another gathering of expensive motor launches. I guess if you are one of the rich and famous you need to be seen at this time of the year at either Cannes or Monaco ... or both?!

With the Cannes Film Festival opening on Monday much of the Promenade de la Croisette, the waterfront avenue lined with palm trees that features restaurants, cafés and boutiques along a picturesque stretch of beach - and the building that hosts the awards ceremonies - were cordoned off for all the movie stars that will descend on Cannes for the festival. We took very ordinary photos because, like in Monaco, the event infrastructure that has been installed to separate the event goers from the riff raff is very ugly. How is it that the television cameras make it all seem so glamorous? Oh yeah, I guess that would be because they are set up in the prime positions on the inside of the fence!!

I think what has been learnt in the past two days is that if you are not going to Monaco specifically for the Grand Prix or to Cannes for the Film Festival you would be best not to go to either destination for about a month either side of the said events if you want to be able to see the towns without kilometres of cyclone fencing. Much prettier I'm sure.

We found a bite to eat away from the sea front - at the Warner Cafe would you believe? Well, I suppose it is pretty good odds that a place so closely associated with films, and by extension Hollywood, is going to have lots of places in town that play on that Hollywood/US connection.

Talk about another town another hill with a castle on it!! After lunch we walked up to the Château de la Castre to take in the panoramic view over Cannes. We were snapping away happily taking photos of the fabulous view when my camera started to play up. Damn it, on our last trip to Europe we had trouble with Bernie's camera, now my camera, or rather the lens, was on the fritz. At least turning if off and on and re-loading the battery was fixing the problem temporarily. A bit tedious though going through that sequence in between every shot.

We caught the train back to Nice because it is so much quicker. It is much more expensive though at €7.00 each compared with €1.50 each on the bus Now that we knew how, it was easy peasy buying the tix for our train journey ... and there was no extensive exploration of Cannes underground because the trains run above ground through Cannes!

Back in Nice we dropped in at the hotel for a pit stop before heading up Nice's hilltop to the Colline de Château. With the gates to the park closing at 7.00pm this is the first afternoon that we have been early enough to walk up to Nice's defensive bluff that was adorned with an impregnable citadel until it was dismantled by the soldiers of the French King Louis XIV in 1706. Usually there is a choice between walking up 400 steps or taking the free lift. Unfortunately the lift is currently out of order so we had to add a few more steps to today's tally!

Tonight we ate just around the corner again from the hotel at the Laotian/Thai/Vietnamese restaurant. We have been lucky to have so many yummy restaurants so close to the hotel.

Steps for the day 23,504 (16.01 km)

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Comments

[Caroline Brunner]

Your camera too??
Hi Tracey and Bernie, you really do experience some very interesting places - love all your daily 'blogs'. Sorry about your camera Tracey. I had similar problems with both my last 2 cameras; the Nikon was returned because of a battery problem [within warranty thank god], and it's replacement [only 15 months ago] - Olympus OMD - has just been sent for repairs because the touch-screen stopped working and the battery connection was also playing up [meaning I had to eject and then insert the battery before I could take any photos!!]. Sooooo annoying. I'm expecting to have to investigate another new camera as I've been told that it's easier to replace [even expensive cameras] than to repair! What a shocking indictment on modern consumer society?! You still have a long time to go before you come home so I hope you can get it fixed. Ciao for now. Caroline