Holiday season in Cannes

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Trip Start Aug 27, 2006 Previous
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  Cannes, France
Wednesday, December 6, 2006

The chocolate advent calendar on my desk tells me that there's eleven days left till I say goodbye to Cannes. I started it early, so window number 24 falls on the-day-I-leave eve rather than Christmas eve. My advent calendar and the Christmas music from my roommate's laptop are a few of the only reminders that it's December--when I look out my bedroom window I still see palm trees, the Mediterranean, and blue skies.

The city of Cannes has made a wonderful attempt though at bringing a little holiday spirit to downtown. There are lights strung everywhere, giant sparkling snowflakes hung between buildings, and faux pine trees covered in faux snow "planted" along the main promenade. They also set up a huge Marché Noël, or Christmas market, along the waterfront plaza with a shimmering ceiling of white lights. The market is a bunch of wooden huts that sell jewelry, pottery, scarves, etc. There are also food huts with churros, candied apples, crêpes, and cotton candy, which they call la barbe de papa noël or Santa's beard. There is also hot chocolate, hot cider, roasted chestnuts, and my new favorite way to drink wine: hot. Yes it sounds weird, but vin chaud is actually quite good...a little spicy but really warms you up. Santa's hut is right in the middle of a winter wonderland, made from more "snow" and trees. For the kids, the market has several mini carnival rides, and for us big kids, there is going to be a real carnival around the corner on the peninsula. So far there's just a ferris wheel set up and the other rides are still packaged in their semi-truck beds, but it's supposed to open this weekend. Finally, there is a live nativity scene every day at 2:30, which I have yet to see. So yeah, quite the variety, but apparently this is how the holiday season is done in Cannes.

Yesterday at the post office I was standing in the interminably long line as usual (some things are apparently the same the world over), when a lady walked in with her dog the size of a small pony. He was huge and round and fluffy, and sat there behind me slowly dripping drool on the floor. Every time the line inched forward, the lady had to coax him to scoot up too, which must have been hard work for him because eventually he just went over to the corner to lie down. At this point, a prim and proper French little old lady came out of a side room and just lit up to see this rug of a dog sprawled across the floor. She asked the owner if she could pet it. It was hilarious to watch this elegant lady get down on her hands and knees, at which point she was pretty much the same size as the dog. It's just the little things that I'm going to miss.

One thing I will not miss which I had my fill of by the end of week one is the amount of secondhand smoke I inhale on a daily basis. We went out to dinner last night, and about half the restaurant was smoking. This was ok back in October when everyone ate outside, but now that it's semi-cold, all the restaurants have moved their seating inside and the smoke just lingers. Yes there are supposed to be smoking and non-smoking sections, but I've noticed that law just sort of fell by the wayside. Besides the smoke, going out for dinner is an adventure in and of itself. The group walks by place after place, scanning the menu for plates that are less than 20 euro but still looks inviting. Let me tell you, economical restaurants are hard to come by in Cannes. In fact, by the time I got to Paris, even those prices seemed quite reasonable next to resort-town Cannes. Well at least all the menus are posted outside the restaurant, so that's handy for scanning purposes. Once you find a place and sit down, you just have to accept that you're going to be there for awhile. There's usually three courses--an appetizer, entrée, and dessert--plus you can sit and chat however long you want. You have to ask for the check when you're ready to leave, and it's nice because the tip and tax are already included in the price you see on the menu.

Since Paris, I've been mostly staying around Cannes and enjoying life. Last Saturday there was an excursion to San Remo, Italy with the College. Only while living in Cannes can I say I day tripped to Italy! But it was nice to go back one last time to eat some focaccia and gelato and hear the wonderful Italian language. We stopped at Dolce Acqua on the way home, a little medieval village up in the hills behind San Remo, which is on the water. The rain held out until about 4 oclock, at which point it started dumping for a straight 24 hours. When it rains, it pours...literally...and there was even some thunder and lightning at one point. But by Sunday afternoon, the blue skies and sunshine were back.

French word du jour: réveillonner, which is a crazy verb that means to celebrate Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve, with the sense of being with family thrown in there too.

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Post your own travel photos for friends and family More Pictures

04 Laura & Darcy confused about snow in Cannes	05 Kelsey, Darcy, me, & Laura with our vin chaud	06 snowflakes hanging around town	07 ferris wheel and other rides being set up
08 dogs playing on the beach	09 the sunset from my window last night	10 movie night	11 Christmas decoration party
12 Sandrine gets the honors	13 making paper chains

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