Page 521 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide - France

St-Tropez after sunset, with CANNES FILM FESTIVAL
its lights reflected in the Film stars, directors, paparazzi, and other movers and
calm waters of the bay shakers descend on Cannes each May for the Cannes Film
Festival, the movie industry’s foremost international
marketplace, and the home of the annual Palme d’Or
26 awards . Launched in 1946, the event really took off as
Digne-les-Bains a major media circus during the mid-1950s, when such
starlets as Brigitte Bardot provocatively posed and
! G6 ⌂ Alpes-de-Haute- pouted for the cameras – a tradition that lives on in
Provence £ @ n Le Rond the 21st century.
Point; www.dignelesbains
tourisme.com
This charming spa town in the
foothills of the Alps features
in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.
A trip on the Train des Pignes
from Nice offers superb views.
Apart from the spa, Digne-les-
Bains also has an annual lav-
ender fest ival and Le Jardin
des Papillons, a butterfly
garden with over 120 species.
Le Jardin des Papillons these glittering events. It was style. Another attractive
"' -= ⌂ St Benoît Lord Brougham, the British feature is the 11th-century
§ 04 92 36 70 70 # Apr–Jun Lord Chancellor, who put it watchtower. The castle keep
9am–5:30pm daily; Jul & Aug on the map, though Prosper houses the Musée de la
9am–7pm daily Mérimée allegedly visited Castre, home to the eclectic
Cannes two months before. finds of 19th-century Dutch
Brougham came in 1834 when explorer Baron Lycklama.
27 he was unable to reach Nice. The famed boulevard de la
Croisette is lined with gardens
Struck by the beauty and mild
Cannes climate of what was then just a and palm trees. One side is
small fishing port, he built a occupied by luxury boutiques
! G6 ⌂ Alpes-Maritimes villa here, and others followed. and hotels such as the belle-
£ @ g n 1 blvd de la
Croisette; www.cannes- The Old Town, centred in the époque Carlton, with twin
destination.com district of Le Suquet, is on the cupolas modelled on the
slopes of Mont Chevalier. Part breasts of La Belle Otero, a
Just like Grasse (p522) is of the old city wall can still be famous member of the 19th-
synonymous with the perfume seen on place de la Castre, century demi-monde. Oppo-
industry, Cannes is known for which is dominated by the site are some of the finest
its many festivals, especially Notre-Dame de l’Espérance, sandy beaches on the coast.
the Film Festival, but there is built in the 16th and 17th cen- The glamour of the Croisette,
much more to the city than turies in the Provençal Gothic once one of the world’s
grandest thorough fares,
seems to have faded amid the
noise and fumes of summer.
Musée de la Castre
" ⌂ Le Suquet § 04 89 82
26 26 # Oct–Mar: 10am–5pm
Tue–Sun (to 6pm Apr–Jun &
Sep); Jul–Aug: 10am–7pm
daily ¢ 1 Jan, 1 May, 1 & 11
Nov, 25 Dec

Summertime strolling along
the boulevard de la Croisette
on the Cannes seafront
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