Travel

Cannes on the French Riviera

http://tourvideos.com/ We are exploring more of the beautiful French Riviera traveling by train from Nice to Cannes. Touring strategies can be summed up in a nutshell: walk from the train station to the waterfront, stroll along the shore to the Old Town, eat and shop, then meander back to the station through the pedestrian area. It’s an easy four-block walk from the Cannes train station to the shore where you can have a peek at the high life exemplified in the extraordinary hotel palaces lining the grand Boulevard de la Croisette. Cannes is one of the most famous of the towns along the French Riviera, especially noted because of the International Film Festival held here every year in the month of May. The sidewalks all around the festival hall are dimpled with many impressions from the big stars – their handprints and footprints and signatures. They flock here during the festival to show off and promote their latest flicks. The main boulevard of Cannes is the Croisette, which is like any luxury Boulevard in Europe – it’s lined with the big fancy hotels. And there's the beach on one side and a row of luxury shops -- you’ve got Louis Vuittin, and Valentino, Chanel and so on, and those top hotels. So this is one of the great neighborhoods of the city that you just absolutely must come and spend some time at. We continue walking a few more blocks on this beautiful Rue d'Antibes. It's just a great street and yet you might easily miss it in your visit to Cannes because it's not that waterfront boulevard with the great hotels and the Film Festival Hall, and it's far from the old town about a mile down the other side – so be sure to look for this street because you'll enjoy taking a stroll here. By this point you have seen all the main highlights of Cannes except for the Old Town which is up on the hill. Now we are entering the old town of Cannes. It's just up on this hill at the end of the road, overlooking the boat harbor. You don't want to miss this, so when you are in Cannes be sure to walk down to the end of town, it just takes 15 to 20 minutes to walk down here, and have a little stroll through old Cannes. The Old Town’s pedestrian zone gently rises via staircases and the upward sloping pathway of Rue Saint-Antoine to the top of the small hill, and that provides a great view looking back across the boat harbor to the beaches, elegant hotels, marina and Festival Hall down below.