Activities in Cannes

The main cultural event is the International Film Festival, which was first planned for 1939, cancelled because of the outbreak of war and then rescheduled for 1946. The festival gradually grew in size and importance, with the participation in the 1950s and 60s of Cocteau, Bardot, Truffaut and Goddard and the addition of the International Film Market, International Critics’ Week and Directors’ Fortnight. By the 1970s, the festival had become big business, as important for networking as for awarding the prizes, including the prestigious Palme d’Or, and increasingly presenting mainstream Hollywood films.

Roman Polanski picked up the coveted prize in 2002, for his directorial return for The Pianist, a holocaust tale of a Polish pianist who escapes a Nazi death camp with the aid of a German officer.

For ticket reservation contact Palais des Festivals for reduced prices for groups. Tickets for general cultural performance and events in Cannes are available at the venue, online or from FNAC, 83 rue d’Antibes . The monthly French-only publication, Le Mois a Cannes, available from the Cannes Tourist Office, provides cultural listings. Listings are also available online .

Music: During the Musical Nights of Le Suquet, international orchestras perform in the Palais des Festivals, Esplanade Georges Pompidou, and chamber orchestras play on the steps of Notre Dame de l’Esperance in Le Suquet. Leading orchestras present during the festival, such as the Cannes Provence Alpes Cote d’Azur Regional Orchestra.

Others perform throughout the year, most notably during the biennial International Classical Music Festival. Other principal venues include the Theatre Debussy, in the Palais des Festivals, and the Theatre Palais Croisette in the Hotel Noga Hilton, 50 boulevard de la Croisette. MIDEM (International Market for Records and Music Publishing) programs jazz, classical and contemporary concerts in January.

Theater: During the International Actors’ Performance Festival, small venues are used to stage humorous sketches, which can be enjoyed over a drink. Productions are often performed in the Espace Miramar, on the corner of La Croisette and rue Pasteur and the smaller theater Alexandre III, 19 boulevard Alexandre III. Actors training at the prestigious theater school, ERAC (Cannes’ Regional Actors’ School), put on regular productions.

Dance: The Ecole Superieure de Danse de Cannes Rosella Hightower, 5 rue de Colmar , prepares seven- to 18-year-olds for their Baccalaureat and a career in international ballet. In addition to regular performances, the biennial International Dance Festival, presided over by Rosella Hightower herself, comprises a mix of neo-classical, contemporary, minimalist and postmodern dance.

Film: Since the International Film Festival (website: www.festival-cannes.fr) is reserved for professionals only, the Cannes Festival Forum, in May, organizes meetings and screenings for film fans. Young critics are targeted at numerous writing workshops during Cannes’ Cinematographic Meeting, in December. In Festival Panorama, ten feature films that have won awards in various international festivals compete. Films made in Cannes and the Riviera include Truth or Dare/In Bed with Madonna (1991) and the Cary Grant and Grace Kelly classic, To Catch a Thief (1955).

Cinemas in the city include Arcades, 77 rue Felix Faure ), Olympia, 16 rue de la Pompe , and Studio 13, 23 avenue du Dr Picaud . Salle Raimu, avenue de la Borde , shows original versions of art films.

Cultural events: Other than the International Film Festival, in May, an event that attracts the creme de la creme of the film fraternity, Cannes has a smattering of annual events, particularly over the summer season, which features the International Fireworks Festival, in July, a competition that draws 1.5 million spectators. The Musical Nights of Le Suquet takes place in mid-July in Le Suquet. The winter season includes the unfailingly good International Dance Festival in December.

Literary Notes

F Scott Fitzgerald is the most famous writer to glamorise the Riviera. The literary fruits of his frequent visits between 1924-29 created a myth of 1920s excess, best exemplified in his novels The Great Gatsby (1925) and Tender is the Night (1934), in which he wrote: ‘Cannes, Nice, Monte Carlo - began to glow through their camouflage, whispering of old kings come to dine or die, of rajahs tossing Buddha’s eyes to English ballerinas, of Russian princes turning the weeks into Baltic twilights in the lost caviar days.’

Sport

French tennis was born in Cannes (the ‘town of a hundred courts’) in 1879, when Sir Thomas Robinson Woolfield built the first court. The modern city has over 16 clubs with 130 courts - the oldest among them, the Tennis Club de Cannes, has welcomed both George V of Sweden and Rita Hayworth. Golf in the city dates back to the original Cannes Golf Club, set up by the exiled brother of Alexander III Tsar of Russia, in the 19th century. Watersports, including windsurfing, water-skiing, scuba diving and pedalos, are widely enjoyed. Sailing takes place at the Vieux Port (Quai St Pierre) and the marinas on the eastern side of Cannes.

The International Festival of Games, which takes place in February, features backgammon, bridge, belote, draughts, chess, role-playing, tarot-reading and crossword puzzles. The Cannes International Show Jumping Competition takes place in June. In September, the International Yachting Festival, one of the leading boat shows in France, is held at the Pantiero Esplanade. During the Royal Regattas, later in the month, fleets of yachts come to Cannes for a week of races.

Boules: Association Boulistes Kiosque, Allee de la Liberte is Cannes’ oldest boules club.

Fitness centers: All of the Cannes’ ‘Palaces’ luxury accommodation and four-star hotels are equipped with fitness centers. Aero Gym Wohl’s sports center for women only, 15 rue Georges Clemenceau , entitles visitors to participate in all the group courses (including stretching, aerobics and aqua aerobics in the sea) as well as access to sauna, jacuzzi and fitness rooms. Men can pump their muscles at the men-only Fitness Center, 10 boulevard du Moulin. The huge, mixed gym, Top Fit, is located close to the motorway exit for Antibes .

Golf: The best greens on the Riviera are within easy reach of Cannes. These include Cannes-Mandelieu, Route du Golf in Mandelieu , and Cannes Mougins Golf Country Club, 175 Route d’Antibes in Mougins . Membership is not required and visitors should expect to pay €90 for a day’s golfing.

Swimming: In addition to the hotel pools and the beaches, visitors can swim at Piscine Coubertin, avenue Pierre Poesi for €1.45.

Tennis: A few of the many courts in Cannes are Tennis Club de Cannes, 11 rue Lacour , Gallia Lucien Barriere Tennis, 8 boulevard Strasbourg , and Tennis Municipal de la Bastide, 220 avenue Francis Tonner in La Bastide Rouge . All charge hourly rates.