It’s ritzy. It’s glitzy. It’s palm trees and beachy. It’s Cannes - and it’s just as glamorous as you'd imagined. Our two weeks there were filled with sunny afternoon strolls along the beach fronts, serious people-watching, window shopping, pool lounging, and attending two events we hadn’t known about before we booked, but were perfect for us. One was the Cannes Yachting Festival and the other was the Royal Regatta, a famous sailing race for vintage boats. More on those outings later.
We stood on these steps and imagined all the stars who tried not to trip on their gowns before us.
A visit to Cannes hadn’t been on our radar, but after leaving Lyon and spending two weeks with family in Samois-sur-Seine, near Paris we realized we weren’t quite done exploring the southern coast of France. Mostly because the weather was still warm and sunny there. Earlier in the summer we’d spent time in the Languedoc region and Provence, and we’d been to Nice, Monaco, and Menton on previous trips - so why not visit the home of the famous film festival? Especially once we found an amazing Airbnb to call home.
Our Airbnb setting was like being in a resort. The grounds and the pool were immaculate, and the view was so enticing, there were days we never left home.
Living in an apartment in a swanky gated complex with rolling manicured grounds, a swimming pool tucked in a secluded grotto, and a huge deck with a view to the sea was the perfect way to “live locally” in this rarified air. The cost per night was slightly over budget, but worth it because we were happy being “home” so we were able to keep our daily expenses over two weeks in this spendy city below average. Our hosts live in the listing full time, and only put it on Airbnb when they travel, so we had everything you could ask for. A kitchen full of equipment, cable television (with Netflix), a deck with comfortable furniture and a large table (we enjoyed putting together a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle on the deck, and a comfortable, ‘90s style decor. The building itself was built in the 1970s as were many of the other buildings on the hillside where lived. The view from the deck was the good news - the twenty-minute uphill walk home, no matter if you were going to town or the grocery store, was either the bad news or, if you want to look on the bright side, you were getting some “CrossFit training” as you hauled your heavy groceries home.
We trekked into the city most days. Once you were down the hill you could reach the center by walking along a lively stretch of private beaches with lounge chairs and umbrellas, usually attached to a restaurant, as well as public beaches where there were still plenty of people spending the day soaking up September sun and going for a dip. We found this to be the perfect time of year to be there - most of the tourists had gone home, so it wasn’t overly crowded, and as I mentioned earlier it was still warm, on average about 75º and sunny most days.
For every hill and every flight of stairs we found in Cannes - there seemed to be Gelato at the finish line.
In the city center, a daily fresh market was the place to find farmers selling just-picked-produce along with olive oil vendors, winemakers, cheesemakers, and freshly made takeaway dishes like rotisserie chicken, couscous with a variety of toppings, addictive fried zucchini blossoms filled with goat cheese, and oysters, oysters and more oysters. Or mussels if you prefer those. You could stand in front of a stall and sip on 2 euro glass Muscadet while your oysters were shucked at lightning speed. Or you could take them home - at 5 euro a dozen, why not? I had a blissful dinner of almost a kilo of mussels that I steamed with white wine, garlic, shallots, and lemon, with a shower of fresh parsley. On Mondays, the market switches to a flea market where the cast-offs of the rich and famous can be found. Speaking of the rich and famous, one morning we were waiting to cross the street and in the line of traffic at the light, interspersed with ho-hum BMWs and Mercedes, there was a Bently, a Porche, and a Land Rover!
Cannes doesn’t have a free walking tour, but the tourism office offers a “greeters” program where volunteer residents share their particular passion about the city. You can read about the guides and choose one that speaks your language and matches your interests. It may be historical, or film festival related, or a culinary tour. We connected with Nancy - a full-on Californian transplant who has lived in Cannes for many years, but never lost her American zest for life! She is a sommelier so she took us on a wine-focused food tour of the city that ended with a Rose tasting. The center of the city is fairly compact so once we had our bearings we found ourselves on the same streets of Le Suquet (the old town) with Nancy that we had walked before. That also made for local living as we returned to the shops and cafes.
Shopping is inevitable in Cannes. I finally bought a new top - it’s been a long time since I splurged on something so colorful! However, grandson Marcel, at the tender age of 7 took one look and said “Umm, Mooma, we don’t wear things like that in France!”. He obviously needs to spend more time in the sunny South.
Window shopping was a fine way to spend an afternoon. There were many luxury stores I wouldn’t have felt comfortable stepping inside, even if I could muster the bravado. But that’s okay because in France stores are required to display the prices of the merchandise in the windows. So you can consult the tasteful little signs to consider whether the $4,000 handbag that goes perfectly with the $2,500 shoes is worth considering before getting past the intimidating doorman. People watching went hand in hand with this activity as you observed those who boldly went into Chanel and Louis Vitton and came out with sleek shopping bags. It was like that great scene in Pretty Woman when Julia Roberts depletes a few Rodeo Drive boutiques.
Of course, Cannes claim to fame is the annual Film Festival where, once a year in May, the elite of the international film and advertising industry take over the city. It would be amazing to be there for that event - but after navigating this small city I can only imagine the chaos that must come with it. We did visit the venue where the awards take place and had our obligatory picture taken on the red carpet, but for us, two even better events coincided with our visit.
The view from Notre Dame de l'Esperance church courtyard overlooking the harbor and the Cannes Yachting Festival site.
The Cannes Yachting Festival is the annual boat show where badrillionaires can check out what’s new in the world of mega-yachting. Of course, boats like those owned by Jeff Bezos and various Saudi Princes are not on display, but if you’re interested in something smaller, say 65 to 150 feet there are many to peruse. And the sailboats were equally stunning. Michael was president of the Northwest Marine Trade Association for ten years and ran the Seattle Boat Show, so this event was right up his alley. We found out that we could get into the show for free if we were willing to bypass the main entrance and go a little further out to the entrance for sailing and brokerage boats. Between 10:00 and 11:00 am those gates were open to the riff-raff for one hour. Once inside, however, you could hop on the free shuttle back to the main show. We spent an enjoyable morning observing how the 1% spend their leisure time, and while we miss sailing, we are done being boat owners. Not that there was a single boat in our price range other than some lux runabouts that were basically dinghies for the mega-yachts.
During our second week, Cannes hosted it’s annual Royal Regatta, an internationally famous sailing race featuring sailboats at least 35 years old. Many were closer to a hundred years old. We bought tickets to spend a couple of hours aboard a tour boat that got you close to the course. It was sort of like whale watching as we all rushed from one side of the top deck to the other to catch sight of these classic beauties under full sail.
I read a book based near Cannes called The Olive Farm. Often the books I read about a region aren’t 5-Star picks on Goodreads, but they do add flavor to my experience. This book was along the lines of Peter Mayle’s often copied A Year in Provence. The writer, British television actress Carol Drinkwater, tells the story of purchasing a dilapidated villa surrounded by ancient olives trees and the challenges she encountered returning it to a successful olive farm. It was good. The property is near the Medieval city of Mougins, just a half hour’s drive out of Cannes, so we decided to visit the town, but the farm is private property so we couldn’t stop by. Still, it was enjoyable to be in the places mentioned in the book, and Mougins is a small, well-preserved enclave of winding streets and ancient buildings dotted with some of the area's finest restaurants. The views back to the sea were spectacular.
We left Cannes for an unexpected return to Paris. We hold one-year French Tourist Visas that were issued last January, but for one reason or another, we hadn’t had the final medical procedures required to finish our official paperwork. We needed a chest X-ray to detect Tuberculosis and a follow-up visit to a health clinic for a check-up. Both needed to be done in the Prefecture (the nearest municipality) to our French address. In our case, since we used Mary’s address, the city was Melun. We were told the appointments would be in mid-October, but our dates for the two procedures ended up being September 26 and October 7th. Both appointments went smoothly, we were just disgruntled by the bureaucracy that caused a change of plans.
The bright blue Quigo trains are less expensive than the regular SNCF trains - sort of like a budget airline.
We booked a train to Paris out of Nice. SCNF, the national train service for France, has added cheap trains to many destinations called Ouigo (We-Go). They are considerably more affordable but equally as comfortable as regular trains, but usually run just once or twice a day during off-peak hours between major cities - and there is no dining car. Catching the train in Nice meant we had to get there from Cannes. It was a scramble to tidy-up, pack and get a taxi to the station in time to catch the local run to Nice. We just made it!
From there we would head to Paris and stay in the city with friends for one night, have our X-rays and then head to Bordeaux to chill for a week before coming back for the medical exam. All in all, a hassle, but we got a bonus trip to Bordeaux, and the chance to see our friends the Fairbanks, and a quick weekend with the Bourons, so worth it.
Meanwhile, once we settled into our seats on the Ouigo train and underway, we realized Cannes was an upcoming stop along the way! We could have saved the money and the frenzy of getting to Nice altogether and caught the train almost walking distance from our house! As Michael says, “travel planning isn’t all rainbows and roses, ya know!”
We enjoyed the south of France for most of the summer and fall. So even it travel planning has it’s challenges, it also has its rewards. We may be back in Cannes next fall for the two boating events!
I’ll recap our week in Bordeaux next. But since then we’ve headed back south, but this time to Italy. We are currently enjoying some late fall sunshine in the seaside city of Sanremo. From here we head to Verona, Bologna, and Florence. Then we'll rent a car and drive through Tuscany before we leave from Rome to Malta for a little dental work. Ultimately, we end up in the Cotswolds Thanksgiving week for our beloved God Daughters wedding! We will return to Seattle from there for the holidays.
Thanks for following along,
Debbie and Michael Campbell
NOTE: This is the 185th blog I’ve written since we began our Senior Nomad adventure in 2013. All of the blogs are searchable by topic or location. And, if you’d like to try living daily life in an Airbnb, use this link and save $40. on your first booking and receive $15. credit towards an Airbnb Experience.