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Bay of Cannes, La Croisette

Overview: Today it is hard to imagine that the quintessential, glamorous French Riviera holiday resort of Cannes was for centuries a simple, sleepy fishing village whose only visitors were monks and wealthy pilgrims who came to visit the monastery on the nearby Island of St Honorat. All this changed in 1834 when Lord Henry Brougham, former British Chancellor of the Exchequer, arrived and established Cannes as a popular up-market holiday resort for the British upper-classes.

Soon the French and later the Russian aristocracy also flocked to Cannes to while away their summer holidays. Each May the world's media flocks to Cannes for its annual Film Festival, which draws the international celebrities and super-stars along with the paparazzi and expectant fans hoping to glimpse the rich and famous at the Palais des Festivals.

Hundreds of less exceptional international conferences take place here each year, making rooms hard to find and restaurants hard to book for much of the year. Cannes is busy all year round, frequented by hosts of business travellers off-season and besieged by tourists on holiday in the summer, when the long sandy beaches, glitzy nightclubs, chic shops and famous promenade are abuzz with beautiful people flaunting the latest designer wear. Despite the city's pretensions and massive over-development, Cannes is still an international city of charm and good cheer, a great holiday destination.

Nearby Attractions

Antibes

Antibes is a pleasant excursion a few miles east of Cannes. It has one of the best markets on the coast and an excellent Picasso museum in its ancient seafront castle, the 16th century Château Grimaldi. Picasso was lent a room in the...  see full details

Ile St Honorat & Ile St Marguerite

The two islands of Lerins - Ile St Marguerite and Ile St Honorat lie within a 20-minute boat ride from Cannes. Ile St Honorat is a tiny forested island, the smallest and most southern of the Iles de Lerins. It has been the...  see full details

La Croisette

The long, shop-studded promenade of La Croisette, and its seven miles (11km) of beach, is Cannes' major attraction. Palatial hotels line this strip each with their own private beach and this is where you are most likely to spot a familiar face, or...  see full details