A Coastal Drive Along the Côte d’Azur in the Low Season: Cannes, Antibes and Nice

Visiting Côte d’Azur in the Low Season

Cannes Old Town

It’s only a five-minute walk from the train station to my hotel, the Five Seas by Inwood Hotels. The hotel is an oasis, with a rooftop bar and restaurant, and an infinity pool with views of the Mediterranean Sea. (I can only imagine it filled with movie stars.) My room on the third floor of the hotel has every possible comfort, including red slippers, a robe and a built-in closet. I hardly want to leave!

Turning right from the hotel on Rue Bivouac Napoleon, with its huge memorial to the March, takes me past the iconic New York Café, and the elegant 150-year-old Hotel Splendide (soon closing for renovations). Over three million people visit Cannes each year and enjoy its 10 km of sandy beaches, boating and historical sites that run along the boardwalk (called the ‘Golden banana’ by locals, my guide Pieter tells me). During the Cannes Film Festival in May, celebrities stay in the iconic hotels like the Carleton Hotel or Hotel Martinez and walk the red carpet at the Palais des Festivals. There’s a red carpet there, but it’s just for tourists like me, who can’t resist the chance to say ‘we walked the red carpet!’

The name Cannes is said to be of Celtic origin (from the word ‘kan’, which means hilltop); the origins of Cannes are found on the hill of Le Suquet, where a fortress was built in ancient times. This is also where you can get the best views of Cannes (by walking, or there is a small pink bus that regularly drives up). Today, the Notre-Dame-de-l’Espérance church hosts the summer concerts of the Nuits musicales du Suquet. There’s also The Museum of World Explorations, formerly the Castre Museum, housed in the remains of the medieval castle of the Lérins monks.