The news from Cannes

 

We got off to a rough start in France. Probably two full days of travel, through Singapore and Switzerland and nearly any time zone you can think of (Look, we're over India! Look, we're over Bagdad!) made us crabby and unfit for new challenges. And Kyoto and Japan won us over in ways we didn't really know existed, so it was complicated. But a week into life here and we were dazzling the pharmacists at the village pharmacy with our french as we bought ourselves some flu ("grippe") and covid ("covid") shots as a treat. Well, maybe not dazzling them, but I don't think they hated us and that's a win you want to take in France, and maybe in the whole world when it comes down to it.

Anyway, with our feet under us we headed off to Cannes for the first time today.

Here's the thing:

We have already been to Antibes twice, and we really thought we'd love Antibes. The Internet's story of Antibes is that it is less glitzy,  with a more low key cote d'azur charm. And sure the large old city old parts of Antibes are about the cutest thing you can ever see, full of quintessential French alleyway fantasias that keep walking out of postcards into the real world. And not walking out of the cheap, bulk postcards, but walking out of the really amazing postcards you don't buy because 3 euros is ridiculously expensive for a postcard, but then you do buy it because if you're going to go to all the stupid trouble of sending a postcard you're not going to send some generic scene everyone back home already knows how to tune out, no! You want to send the kind of picture that says something about how amazing this place is!

Where were we?

Ah, yes, Antibes was pretty.

But between its picturesque alleys and squares, all turning slowly to Fall colors, and with heavy leaves crashing into the ground with hilarious thuds, there were mostly restaurants and tourists (like us! But we live here now so...) and it all felt a little show offy. Sure, that is a quality to be expected on the Cote D' Azur, but we thought if Antibes was full of it, Cannes would be twice as bad.

But Cannes was fun.

Yes there were rich people and tourists and close to enough the same amount of sheer beauty as Antibes, but it also didn't really seem to care so much about it all. It had tatty souvenir shops and toy stores and yes, the best crepes ever, but it was much more of a rambling mix of stuff.  It was oddly comfortable with itself, and we liked it a lot more.

Like, A LOT more.

Did I mention the crepes?

They were traditional buckwheat crepes. One had apples, goat cheese, and walnuts, the other ham, truffles, egg, cheese (I forget what kind).

We climbed up through some sort of park to a church fortress up on a hill where I took the only one minute session of pictures that I have of the city, so it's a bit of a narrow slice, but I include them so you can have something to work with. And while you mull them over I'll think about what I want to say next time about our bus ride home.