Cannes – An All Year Round Destination

Cannes, located in the south eastern area of France is the most famous city on the French Riviera.

The weather in Cannes can top 40c in the Summer months but even through the Winter months pleasantly mild temperatures are seen with low rainfall making this city a year round destination.

Cannes is probably best known for the Cannes Film Festival. The film festival takes place every May and takes over the whole of the city. Much revered within the film industry, Cannes attracts high profile actors, actresses, directors and royalty. The Festival de Cannes has been going for 61 years now and seems to get more popular each year.

The concentration of famous faces brings many fans and tourists during festival time. All but a handful of the many luxury Cannes villas are fully booked. Being a very affluent area, Cannes has some of the most stunning holiday villas in France. Many villas south of France are even located within private gated communities, extremely sort after by celebrities. With such clientele, it is no surprise that Cannes is also famous for its luxury shops, exquisite restaurants and prestigious hotels such as the Majestic Barriere. Popular with famous faces all over the world, this legendary hotel epitomizes the Cannes Film Festival.

When staying in Cannes, of course a shopping trip must be done but on from that there are many sights and cultural experiences to be had. One such is a walk up Mont Chevalier up to Suquet. The panorama up there is breathtaking and whole of Cannes including the Lerins Islands can be seen. For those interested in fishing, the Vieux Port is a must see where the fishermen work alongside the sightseeing boats. And then what everyone does when they visit Cannes is walk the three kilometres of one of the most famous promenades in the world, The Croisette. This stretch follows the curve of the bay and is adorned with palm trees, lawns, planted gardens and flowers.

Another activity that must be done is the boat trip to the islands of St Marguerite and St Honorat. St Marguerite is famous for the cell at the Fort of St Marguerite, now called the Musee de la Mer, which is said to have held the “Man with the iron mask” for 11 years. It is also the location of many shipwrecks. St Honorat is only inhabited by Cistercian monks. There are the ruins of the 11th century monastery on the edge of the island right by the sea and the monks spend their days praying and making the famous Curvee St Honorat red and white wine.

The Nice Cote d’Azur Airport is located just 15 miles from Cannes making it an easily accessible destination. By car, the A8 motorway goes all the way from Paris to Nice. Transportation by rail is also available with services from all the major French towns but also from Brussels, Rome, Milan and Venice.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 7th, 2009 at 5:38 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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