Cannes, Cote D'Azur

 

Tucked away between the Cannes Port to one side and turquoise Croisette Beach on the other is the Palais des Festival de Cannes where the annual Cannes Film Festival is held. The internationally renowned Film Festival has been running for over 70 years. As part of the Big Five film festivals which include Venice, Berlin, Toronto and Sundance in the US, the Cannes Film Festival is where all new films and documentaries from around the world are previewed. 

The festival is a prestigious event that is by invitation only. It is attended annually by nearly 40,000 guests including celebrities, rising stars, hopefuls of the Palme D'Or Award and a staggering 4,500 journalists show up to capture every facet of the event. 

As famous as the event is today, the festival had very interesting beginnings. Back in the 1930s the only festival that existed worldwide was the Venice Film Festival which started in 1932. Presenting movies for the coveted Mussolini Cup, the French became disillusioned when the judges' decisions were overruled by Mussolini and Hitler and instead of a French film winning, the winners were an Italian film and German documentary. 

Unhappy with the situation the French, British and Americans withdrew from the festival and inspired the French to establish their own film festival. As such Le Festival International du Film was born with Cannes as the chosen location, largely due to its Côte d'Azur location. The first event was slated for September 1939 with Hollywood celebrities brought in by an ocean liner chartered by the film studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Unfortunately, World War II started in September and although the festival was delayed 10 days eventually it was cancelled. The festival was relaunched in 1946 and with the exception of two years when it didn't take place, the festival has been a major presence in the film industry remaining the most exclusive event of all film festivals.

Of course Cannes was not just about the film festival. It's major street, Boulevard de la Croisette, is one of the most iconic streets in France. It runs for a mile (1.6km) alongside the coastline with luxurious hotels, casinos and designer stores dotting the street. 

As lovely as that may be what I was more interested in was the Marché Forville, a large undercover food market where I could indulge in locally grown fresh produce, a Spanish paella or Italian ravioli with Provençale pasta sauce. 

From here I took a stroll through Le Suquet, an old neighbourhood that was once the original fishermans' residential area. With pastel-coloured buildings lining the steep cobbled street, the area was filled with restaurants. As I made my way up, I came across Notre-Dame d'Espérance, a 14th century stone church with a belltower, and adjacent to it is a medieval castle that houses a unique collection of medieval artefacts, paintings and Asian instruments. The collection was bequeathed by a local resident and the castle is now used as a museum. A further 109 steps took me to the top of the tower for a spectacular view of Cannes.

In the distance I could see Sainte-Marguerite Island, which is famously known for holding the mysterious Man in the Iron Mask as prisoner for a period of 11 years. He wore a mask because King Louis XIV never wanted him to be identified. Plenty of speculations have been made since his death in 1703 but no conclusive evidence has ever been found. One thing for certain was that his mask was made of cloth not iron and Alexander Dumas was inspired to write his novel, The Man in the Iron Mask. The island is a museum today which includes the masked man's cell.