Cannes, the home of the film festival!

 We walked to the train station in Villefranche-sur-Mer to take the 10:00 train to Cannes.   When we arrived at the small train station, the board indicated the train was delayed 40 minutes. No choice but waiting. We sat on one of the benches by the railroad tracks on the sunny side. An english woman arrived and was disappointed by the delay.  We exchanged a couple of words; she showed us how to validate our ticket and then she sat far from us. More people arrived and all had that same reaction. Finally, the train arrived. It was a very old regional train with very dirty windows and some had graffiti on them. We were not happy with the seats available, but we reminded ourselves if we didn't like it, start liking it and enjoyed the ride. It was about 25 minutes, we planned to stop at Antibes, another historical town, to check it out. The destination of our ticket was Cannes, but tickets allow riders to stop anywhere at no extra cost along the way.  

Antibes has a down-to-earth feeling, easygoing ambience that’s rare in this area. Its old town is a maze of narrow streets and red-tile roofs rising above the blue Med, protected by twin medieval towers and wrapped in extensive ramparts. The Côte d' Azur gives its visitors an opportunity to browse Europe’s biggest yacht harbor, snooze on a sandy beach, loiter through an enjoyable old town, and hike along a sea trail. We are taking advantage of every opportunity as each town is 15-40 minutes by bus or train. Antibes only claim to fame is the Picasso Museum which shows off its great collection in a fine old building. We found our way to the old town and ended up in the Provençal Marche. I love how everything is set up in style, from the olives to the cheeses, spices, dry fruit and more. Everything pleased the senses, including tasting as many vendors were offering free samples. We bought some dry fruit, prunes, mango and ginger. Dry fruit is very expensive everywhere, we end up paying €15 for our small choices.

Here are some of the stalls at the Provençal Market in Antibes

                      

      

We ended up having lunch picnic style by the harbor, enjoyed watching people and headed down back to the train station to take the next train to Cannes. 

Antibes harbor....

Antibes beach, sand instead of gravel...

                 

                

We arrived in Cannes. Another glitzy town starting with the train station that has nice chairs with arms inside and outside the building for the waiting, automatic doors, nice coffee shop and more. Across from the station there were many restaurants. We strolled down to main street where the Old Town is on one side, followed by the harbor with the glitzy yatchs next to the Casino, and the huge theater where they hold the film festival in May.

Here is a view of Cannes old town from the main plaza at the back of is picture .

 The casino, we tried to get in...no such luck. I guess they know we are not gamblers, they sent us back.

Cannes harbor; more multimillion dollar yachts!

Cannes is the sister city of Beverly Hills. It has exclusive hotels lining mostly private stretches of perfect, sandy beach which is for strolling, shopping, dreaming of meeting a movie star, and lounging on the seafront. We went inside the Carlton Hotel, very elegant from the outside, but even though beautiful inside, I like the Ritz Carlton in Laguna Nigel better. Money is what Cannes has always been about— wealthy people come here to make the scene, so there’s always enough scandale to go around. We strolled down the promenade to watch the people's clothes, some sitting down at the blue chairs along visiting with friends, some simply relaxing and watching. Many people were walking with their expensive dogs with sweaters on. This is the only place we saw doggie bags and trash cans for it. Perhaps the only place that people pick up, as we have experienced the opposite everywhere we have been.

One of the many fancy hotels along the promenade.

The beginning of the Croisette promenade.

 Palais des Festival et des Congress (the film festival theater) it has three entrances, all very similar.

The Croisettes Bloulevard. Please note that no pastel colors.in this town, all building are white or beige with an elegant feel.

La Croisate Promenade in Cannes , impressive with bar and restaurants on the each side. Not many were open but were getting there ready for the touristic season.

We were impressied with Cannes, it was an elegant town but it can't be compared to Monaco.

The hotels all appear to be five stars with fancy lobby's and valet parking. The beach restaurants, like most restaurants along the French Riviera, were very pricey, Cannes stands out because it is the home of the film festival. We just imagined how this town is during the festival.