15 Aug 2008
The Festival for Pyrotechnical Arts
For ten years Cannes has been the home to the Festival for pyrotechnical arts. It is an International musical fireworks competition. There are six performances annually and tonight was one of them. I have never seen anything quite like it.
We viewed it along with 200,000 other people shore side. We were fortunate enough to have the very best seat in the house. As a thank you from management for our room issues earlier in the stay, they comped us the deluxe dinner for four in the very first row of their pier.
www.festival-pyrotechnique-cannes.com/rubrique.php3
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14 Aug 2008
St. Paul de-Vance
A nice place to walk narrow streets, see little stores and have a nice lunch, St. Paul de-Vence is a former walled city near Antibes that sits high on a hill with peaceful pastoral views.
However it is really all about contemporary art galleries. There are many and they are interesting. It's definitely worth a couple hours.
Restaurant tip – Do NOT eat at La Colobe d’Or in Saint-Paul. It is a rip and not nearly as charming as the smaller restaurants that dot the town.
Restaurant tip 2 – Do eat at Vessuvio in Cannes. I have been there probably 30 times and never had a bad meal. It is not the fanciest, just the best. It’s Italian. Get there before 8:00 pm for dinner or you will wait in line, or bring some extra Euros for the meeter and greeter. It’s good for lunch too.
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13 Aug 2008
Typical Cannes day
Today was another lazy Cannes day. The routine gets repetitious, but seems to work just fine for us. It goes something like this:
- Breakfast on the terrace
- Exercise
- Lunch in a French/Italian brasserie
- Beach and/or shop
- Nap
- Dinner at someplace special
- Ice cream on the walk back to the hotel
We tried to break up the day today by running an errand. My battery charger wasn’t working and Allyn’s seem to have disappeared. We asked the concierge for a camera store to buy one and really just give us something to do. He took all the fun out by telling us that is not what they do at The Majestic Hotel; they do the errands for us. Oh well. They did get us a nifty universal charger.
Restaurant tip – For fresh shellfish everybody in Cannes goes to Chez Astoux. Get there before 9 pm. They don’t take reservations. 43 rue Felix Faure http://www.astoux.fr/angl.html
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12 Aug 2008
Forehead sign
Do I have a sign on my forehead that says “American Sucker”?
You may recall that we left off yesterday where they asked us to volunteer to room to an upgraded room, a nice suite, in order to accommodate some other guests. Always being happy to help, (especially since they gave us the night for free) we agreed and off we went to dinner. When we returned all of our things were moved in the exact same position in the new room. Then the problems started.
Now I must warn you that my boys constantly tell me that I just can’t
keep running into problems and incompetency. They think I expect too much from mere mortals. So let me give you a list of some of the room problems:
- Both doors to the outside accessible patio did not lock or have a lock
- The door to the room next door also did not lock, but has a lock
- The carpet was wet to the touch
- The toilet ran and made significant noise, but it did not flush anyway
- We had no Internet
- We had a bug issue
- The draperies were stuck ¾ closed
- They clearly have has a flood or something in the room and were not using it. Wood was stained and warped.
- The usual amenities were not in the room. A TV was haphazardly set on a refrigerator because furniture was lacking.
- It smelled moldy.
We spent the night there and moved again this morning. We now have a beautiful, newly refurbished top floor room, further discounted, thanks to Allyn’s assertiveness.
Restaurant tip – One of the most charming restaurant streets in the world is rue Saint-Antoine. You can’t go wrong anyplace there.
We ate at Le Mesclun, www.lemesclun-restaurant.com, tonight which is a bit fancier and mainly inside dining.
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11 Aug 2008
Breakfast sans croissant
I did it. I survived a breakfast with no croissant, pain au chocolat or any other bread. The trick was to order room service and not be tempted.
That handled, it was time for Allyn and me to head to the gym. Again, I was amazed because I actually was looking forward to it and then actually enjoyed it. It’s amazing what eating crazy for ten days will do to you with no exercise after having been on a program for a couple months.
About 7:30 pm the manager called and wanted to give us a free night and an upgraded room if we would move. It turns out that a shiekload full of Arabs wanted the entire floor we were on. No problem. We went out to a beautiful dinner and came back to a nice, new, larger suite.
Restaurant tip - Gaston-Gastounette , the most dependable fish restaurant down by the old port at St. Pierre
There is a pizza restaurant next door to Gaston-Gastounette that I have not frequented but it is always jammed and has a constant line. It must be either dirt cheap (which I doubt) or outstanding.
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