15-8

Our short day trip to Cannes went as follows. We turned up at the tourist office at ten on the dot. It wasn't a really surprise that the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès (1949) tour was not on today, as it only takes place 2/3 times per year, for some unknown reason. Still, outside, you can take pictures on the red carpet that the stars use and see the hand prints of stars/ directors on the Alées des Etoiles du Cinema, the French equivalent of Hollywood's walk of fame. I was happy to find David Lynch, Tim Burton, Jack Nicholson, Catherine Deneuve, Dennis Hopper, Quentin Tarantino and others. Then we bought a special ticket at La Malmaison, which gets you admission to four places. We weren't interested in the photographic expo they had here and left in a matter of minutes. The one that did interest us was the Musée de la Castre inside Le Suquet medieval castle, which is situated in the old quarter, which (surprise surprise) is called Le Suquet; we liked this part of town the most as it has plenty of atmosphere and Dumitra says that it reminds her of Italy. Then, we went on a quest to have a drink at the beach front Carlton Intercontinental (1911), which, incidentally, features in Hitchcock's To Catch a Thief (1955) starring Grace Kelly (she met her future husband Price Ranier of Monaco during filming) and Cary Grant. We were turned way as it was too busy on the beach terrace, but we went inside instead for a drink (I had a champagne cocktail and Dumi had a Bunny Flash with cranberry juice, orange juice and carrot juice mocktail), which was a real treat. In fact, this hotel is known as the home of the stars during the Cannes Film festival (1939) and it has been something of a tradition since 1946.