Wasn't not too crazy about the glitz and the glamour that Cannes is primarily known for but decided to head there anyway to soak in the sun, the sand and the sea!
We started the day with a visit to Île Sainte Marguerite (3km by 900m in size), the largest of the Lérins Islands, about a 15 minute boat ride from Cannes. The prison on this little island (Le Fort Royal), is where the Man In the Iron Mask was once withheld.
On the way to the Port, from which we were to take our boat:
left: See anything familiar? Haha it kinda filled me with pride to see the name of our little country outside the Grand Auditorium.
right: The pretty apartments lined wall-to-wall overlooking the port.
More luxury yachts
The Jules Verne IV - the only way to sail (costs 11€ one-way)
We cruised the Mediterranean! (Even if it was only for 15 minutes) haha. It was nonetheless really memorable and therapeutic to watch the coastline gradually disappear and to watch the trailing white foam as the ship sliced through the clear azure waters.
And before we knew it, we'd reached the tiny village. It felt as if we were stepping into a time warp that took us back to the last century. It was especially queer since the bustling city of Cannes was a mere 700m away! Kinda reminded me of Pulau Ubin and Singapore.
Anyway, I loved this hidden treasure. Getting lost in its narrow paths with hardly a soul in sight and hearing only the sound of our voices, was the epitome of tranquility.
With a dolphin close to the shoreline too!
It didn't take long for us to make our way up to the Fort. It wasn't yet opened to public but the entrance wasn't barred so we decided to venture into its grounds. It was dead quiet at that time (it was about 10am) and the sound of each step we took seemed to bounce of the stone walls of the fort, returning 10 times magnified!
If I'm not mistaken, there're still people living in the fort, so some parts are marked 'private property'.
above left: trying my hands at pumping water from the ancient well
above right: prison and museum of the Man In the Iron Mask, which we unfortunately had to miss as it wasn't yet opened.
By the jetty where we decided to have our lunch:
above right: crystal clear waters and our lunchtime companion - the seagull
At about noon, we caught our return boat and headed back to Cannes. We'd have loved to spend more time on the island but as it is we had pretty tight schedule cos we wanted to cover as much as we could. Sighh..
Taking a walk along the quaint streets of Cannes:
A wet market - the first I'd seen in Europe!
left: using the self-washing public toilets (quite lux! haha)
right: ahh really cannot make it hoho
The palm prints of some of the stars
...and mine of course! haha
A very pretty carrousel and a line of ramrod straight palms
We took a break relaxing on the beach doing beach babe and hunk watching haha
Just two of the pricey hotels lining the beach
The stretch of beach just in front of each hotel belongs to it. There, the hotel restaurant serves food from the morning till evening. (They do not open for dinner which is such a waste cos I bet they'd be doing a roaring business if they do). If anyone wishes to use the 'private beach' that belongs to a hotel, he'd have to pay to virtually rent a day at the beach (incredible!).
The 'Orchard Road' of Cannes - La Rue d'Antibes where the designer labels congregate. And yep, flashy cars are a rather common sight there.
Tiny bus that runs on electricity damn cute!
The street of bargains which the locals frequent. They even have a 2€ shop where I bought a mini French flag as a souvenir.
In one of the Fromageries (shop that sells cheese)... was drooling just looking at the innumerous types of cheese on display.
As night fell, we took a walk towards the beach, excited at the prospect of having a good dinner by the sea but unfortunately, we found this:
Closed
But since we were already there, we decided to just sit on the chairs along the beach and soak in the beautiful night sky.
For dinner, we decided on this restaurant which was full of locals (which meant it had to be good) and was going to broadcast the Rugby World Cup match between France and New Zealand cos we wanted to get a feel of how the atmosphere would be like since the French are pretty passionate about national sports.
The meals were very reasonably priced too! Had a HUGE pot of mussels, fries and a small salad for 9€. Loathe to imagine the amount of cholesterol that meal incurred.
After the dinner, we headed back to the hotel cos it was half time and France was trailing by quite a bit but at about 11pm, horns started blarring in the streets below and people were shouting and cheering cos France had defeated the All Blacks in the quarterfinals of the rugby world cup (who'd have thought)! We could've kicked ourselves for not staying out to soak in the atmosphere of celebration that went on into the night.
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