Cannes

On our last day in Paris, we checked out of our hotel and decided to walk over to the louvre area which is where i stayed on my first trip to Paris. On the way we discovered the buddha bar and hotel crillon and passed by all the designer shops on rue st. Honore. We headed down rue di rivoli where all the tourist shops are and ended up having lunch by the louvre. I had a croque Madame (ham, cheese, and fried egg) which was amazing along with salad (had to have something healthy to balance out all the crap I've been eating on this trip). Afterwards we headed back to the hotel to get our bags and cabbed it to the airport. We flew easyjet from Paris to nice and arrived in the evening around 8pm. We had 2 options for getting from the nice airport to Cannes: bus or train. The woman at the information desk recommended the bus and my gut told me that the train was faster but considering her the expert we took the bus. After waiting almost an hour, we took the 200 local bus to Cannes which was quite an adventure. There were no stop signs and many stops were literally on the side of the road. For a second I thought I was in a third world country. The characters on the bus were no less entertaining. From the bus driver who's facial expression indicated she really did not want to stop for a passenger who was late boarding the bus, to the woman who started screaming at the back of the bus because the bus was pulling off before she got a chance to get off (why on earth she was lollygagging is beyond me) there was no shortage of entertainment. An hour later we arrived in Cannes and the port area was bustling as if it were noon. We made our way to the hotel gray d'albion and upon arrival were told that he hotel was full but that they were honoring our reservation at the majestic barriere - their 5 star sister property down the street facing the water. There were no complaints on our end...well at first. We checked in without issue and spent the next three days exploring Cannes.

The excitement of Cannes itself seemed limited to the area by the water which is primarily where we stayed. There are tons of restaurants and rue d'antibes is the main shopping street with your usual stores (sephora, Zara, etc.). The high end designer stores were mostly along the water.

Our first full day in Cannes was spent mainly lounging. We walked along the beach, had drinks at the intercontinental Carlton hotel (beautiful hotel, will cost you a grip to stay there), and eating...lots of eating. At night we tried the champagne bar at the majestic and i tried this hampagne drink with strawberries. It was good but for 25€ it had better been.

On day two we took a day trip to Monaco/Monte Carlo which turned out to be my favorite part of the trip. Its absolutely beautiful there. We arrived by train which puts you off at the top of the city. We walked down a number of hills before arriving at the casino surrounded by gardens which is a beauty in its own right. The casino didn't open until the afternoon and as it turns out formal attire is required (needless to say we never entered). There was also a vegas style casino in the same square, which we walked through briefly. We walked around he area down towards the water where we passed another Buddha bar and ended up at the fairmont Monte Carlo. We went inside planning to have lunch at the rooftop restaurant...that is until we saw the menu prices. They were outrageous even for us. We headed back to the casino and had lunch at the cafe there (inside because it was beaming hot). After lunch we walked for what seemed like forever down towards the port and past it looking for the starting point for this trolley tour. It took us a good 30-40 minutes to get there (we might have gotten lost in the process). The tour itself was only 8€ and offered a relaxing 30 min ride through the city with an audio guide. It was great until we realized the tour took us by everything we had already seen during our walk earlier in the day, solidifying our hunch that although Monaco is beautiful - its not a very big place. We were planning to spend the entire day there but ended up leaving after the trolley tour since it didn't seem like there was much else to see.

The train ride back to cannes was painful. There was no AC and it was an hour ride on a packed train. Again the characters were quite entertaining. By the time we got to cannes I felt like I needed a shower from the train ride alone. We showered and changed and went to another area of the port for dinner which had great food (the food up to this point was really lackluster). It was a seafood place and I had oysters in this tarragon sauce that was amazing. I also had this flan (caramel custard as they call it) that was yummy. That night we tried a local club called Gotha on the strength that rapper Fabolous was performing. We arrived a little after midnight and there were people there but it was not packed. About an hour later it was pretty packed but there was still no sight of the rapper and they were still bumping techno music. The crowd was a mix of locals and foreigners and there were a lot of VIP tables that were bein utilized (with gigantic bottles of liquor). I was bored after about an hour in and we moved away from the stage and towards the entrance where I proceeded to check out the fashion walking in and out of the club. It was quite interesting - a mix of the appropriate (cute party dresses), the thoughtless (denim shorts and blinged out heels), the tacky (shoes with frayed heels) and the both tacky and inappropriate (a cut open top tied at the bottom with a neon bandeau top underneath, and low rise stretch leggings that barely cover the butt crack). It was more entertaining than Fabolous ever would have been had we actually caught sight of him. We ended up leaving around 2:30 - I have no idea if Fab even showed up. The cab back had better music than the club - the driver had the radio on and they were bumping Sean Paul.

The last day in Cannes was supposed to be spent at the beach but when we stepped out that morning it was overcast. We had reserved a half day at the majestic's private beach starting at 2pm so since it was after 1pm when we left the hotel we opted for a quick hearty lunch at good ole Micky D's. It was crowded as expected and it took some pulling teeth to find a table but we managed. Then after all that effort when we finished lunch and walked outside, it was raining. We ended up spending the afternoon at this restaurant called "New York" (how appropriate). We had a few drinks an dessert there and it was all good until they charged me 10€ for a drink when i ordered a drink that was 4.5€ (and i even pointed out on the menu what I was ordering). Turns out the waiter brought me a larger version of the drink and I didn't know any better until the bill came. I disputed it but the manager would not allow me to pay the lower price so it left a bad taste in my mouth. I suspect they regularly prey on foreigners by doing this.

For the rest of the evening we continued to eat and drink. The food in Cannes overall was pretty good once we discovered where the good restaurants were (at one end of the port). I had some amazing oysters and desserts. I will post more food pics. More to come on st. Tropez.