Cannes, France

It is one week prior to the Cannes Film Festival and several mega-yachts have already arrived; we can see them at two of the marinas from where we are anchored. 107 days at sea and this is only our second tender port - you can’t get much luckier than that. Our tenders carry about 100 people comfortably so the ship empties with very little waiting.

We waited until about 10:30 and headed in - a tender ride of about 15 minutes. This put us only a long block from downtown. As this is the center of the French Riviera the beaches stretch in both directions as do the hotels. We walked up the hill to the Muse¢ e de la Castra; a 12th century watchtower and castle ruins. We then walked back down into town and went down the oldest street. Very narrow and lined on both sides with cafes and shops. All of the buildings off the main street (facing the harbor) are very picturesque and everywhere you go there seem to be two types of people - the very rich and then the tourists. We stopped at a couple places and read the menus thinking about having lunch but there is something about spending over $100 Euros for lunch that just doesn’t hit me too well. So we stopped at one and had a drink and then continued on our way. After about 4 hours of walking around we headed back to the ship and had lunch in the buffet just before it closed.

It is only about an hour from here to either Nice or Monte Carlo by train so many of the passengers were heading off to one of them. Cannes is very pretty - built up into the hills that surround the port. It’s easy to see how it became the playground of the rich and famous but I prefer the cities that have some historically significant buildings or ruins to visit or those with more exotic cultures.