Cannes

I used to say Cannes “cawnes” until my brother corrected me. He’s pretty up on all things French since he and his wife like to come and stay in France for up to 6 weeks at a time. The correct pronunciation is “Can” like “I’m going to open a can of whoopass on you.” See, you can thank me later.

Turns out you can take a bus for one Euro from Mougins to Cannes. It takes all of 25 minutes. So that is what we did! No more Francoise and her flippant Recalculating…! No more “At the first opportunity take an authorized U-turn.” That’ll teach her!

The bus was really nice—big and air conditioned with comfy seats.  You know, like the kind you see in front of Disney World when people take tours. French buses put King County Metro buses to shame.

David and I wondered how buses even navigate through the narrow streets in France, but somehow they do. I didn’t see people jumping out of the way or hear any crunches of metal, so we did just fine. We ended up at the rail station in Cannes, a few blocks from the water.

Cannes is a really great city in such a wonderful location. Big beautiful hotels that overlook the beach and waterfront promenade. So here’s how it goes from north to south on the Cannes waterfront: hotels, big street, promenade, restaurants, beach. The restaurants are on the beach! Weird. And most of the beaches are associated with the hotels across the street meaning you can’t even walk on them unless you are registered at the proper hotel. One sign indicated that if you were not one of the “beautiful people” (that is, registered), it would cost you 36 Euros to use the beach. I bet Paris Hilton can use the beach without paying ANY Euros.

We strolled along La Croisette, the palm-tree lined promenade that overlooks the beaches and restaurants—oh, and the Mediterranean too. There were very large yachts out in the harbor and lots of boats. It was really picturesque despite the day being somewhat overcast. (The first photo above is from the Internet so you can see how beautiful Cannes really is).

Trust me: Yachts are in the distance!

Boats in the harbor at Cannes

La Croisette

On the hotel side of the street are the designer stores. All of them. From Dolce Gabbana to Dior and Gucci—they are there. And then there’s the Hotel Carlton, built in 1909, it’s the place to stay when you’re at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s listed by the French government as a National Historic Building. It pretty much dominates the landscape.

The place to be: Hotel Carlton

Hotel Carlton through the trees

We stopped at a restaurant (not on the beach) and had wine, and then decided we were a bit hungry. So we ordered Sicilian and Irish coffees—to the delight of our waitress—and Nutella crepes. Let me tell you, we’ve never had Nutella before! It’s great!

We took the bus back to Mougins—easy peasy—and had dinner again at Bistro 21 to sample some more fabulous French cooking.

Thursday looks like fun: we’ve booked a 9-hour tour of the French Riviera including Nice and Monaco as well as Eze. Oh, we won’t be driving! So Francoise—and I—can relax!

Where the rich hang out...sunning over the water