Cannes You Dig It?

Days Three - Eight

We spent our last morning in Nice driving through the windy streets exploring neighborhoods. This is quite a frustrating city to drive through -- no boring grid pattern here. We stumbled across the beautiful monastery that boasts both lush gardens and a terrific view of the city. Here's Agnes in the garden:

Here's a backlit shot of John overlooking the city, with the sea in the background.

We then picked up Kathleen, John's mom, at the Nice airport and took a cab into Cannes. Cannes has one of the few sandy beaches on the Côte d'Azur, and it is divided into segments -- most of which are privately run although there are a few stretches of public beach. Some private beaches are connected to hotels, others are not. You can rent an umbrella and a chair for a half or full day, have use of the facilities and eat at the (usually) quite expensive restuarant on the premises. We rented lounge chairs and an umbrella most of the days, but ate lunch at cheaper places on the boardwalk. It's nice because you can leave your stuff there all day, with relative comfort of mind, if you want to wander around a bit. Here's Kathleen and John with the beach stretching out behind them.

Kathleen is an über-shopper who knows the stores of Cannes the way John knows the Redskins' starting lineup. Cannes has one main shopping street -- rue d'Antibes, and loads of little streets that run off it, including a stretch of pedestrian-only cobbled walk called rue Meynadier. One end of town hosts all the usual luxury suspects. As you progress towards the old town, couture is replaced by well-known and more affordable chains until finally you are in the discount end of town. We use the word discount loosely here, as a relative term. Cannes has two standing markets that are open almost every day -- one at each end of the city. Fruits, vegetables, fish, poultry as well as clothing, linens, toys and household items are sold. Here's one:

We had a lovely and relaxing week, basking in the sun -- John is a deep mahogany and Agnes still the color of blanched almonds -- and enjoying the local scene. It became quite hot but since we spent so much time at the beach -- and our hotel was climatisé -- we were fine. We watched the Bastille Day fireworks from the roof of our hotel where there is a pool. On our last day, we hiked up through the old town, or Le Suquet, to the top of the hill, where we found the church of  Notre-Dame-de-l'Espérance, built in the 16th & 17th centuries, and a cool terrace where we sat down and took in the beautiful view of the old port and the hills.
After, Kathleen joined us and we walked along the main beachfront drag -- la Croisette -- to the magnificent Hotel Carlton for a last drink on the terrace.

We have been back in Paris for two weeks now, slowly melting in la canicule . . .

Comments

[buzzgirl]

The photos are gorgeous. I love the one of the market - everything looks so good. And John's mom is a hottie!

[John]

Buzzgirl, don't you mean John is a hottie?

[buzzgirl]

Of course...I thought that was obvious!