The Cannes Can-can

April 10th--(Good Friday)--Our trip today to Cannes (pronounced "can") was via train. We really had no idea how the local train system worked and it took us a little while to get it right. We started out trying to use the automated machines. The first one was only in French, so we moved to another one that had an English option. After about 10 minutes of maneuvering through the system, we thought we had our tickets, only to figure out that the machine only accepts credit cards with the smart chip (popular in Europe, but not on any of ours). So we then went and stood in the ticket counter line to purchase a ticket. This seemed easy, but the ticket just said 'Nice to Cannes', with no time or seat assignment on it. We can handle not having a seat assigned because that is the way the trains were in Switzerland, but no time made it a little difficult to figure out what train to get on. After consulting the departure schedule and asking several people, we finally got on our train and found 4 seats together. There are apparently different trains that travel back and forth to Cannes. Some trains make more stops than others. We were on the slow train that made lots of stops so it took about 45 minutes to arrive in Cannes. Upon arrival, we stopped by the Tourist Information center and picked up a map of the area. We walked down Rue des Serbes that took us right to the promenade (boulevard de la Croisette). It was here that we followed Rick Steves' short guide down the 2-mile-long promenade. For all of the natural beauty we saw yesterday along the French Riveria, today was more about un-natural beauty. We actually saw one old lady sitting on the promenade in a full-length fur coat! We walked down to the Hotel Carlton, the most famous address on the boulevard, (allow 750-5300 Euros for a night). We then turned around and found a nice place to eat right on the beach. It was such a beautiful, sunny day so we really enjoyed sitting outside. There were times where we actually got "hot". That's the first time I believe we've used that word since traveling. Anyway, after finishing up lunch, we walked to the Cannes Film Festival Hall. The hall is where the festival takes place, but is definitely nondescript when the festival isn't going on. We imagined what it would be like during the festival with the red carpet rolled out and all the celebrities. We walked around the Hollywood-style handprints. Abby took her picture with Julie Andrews' hands and Austin found Mickey Mouse. We continued around the Festival Hall to the port (Gare Maritime). It was here that we saw all the big yachts lined up closest to the Film Festival Hall. It was fun to walk by them and see where they were all from. A lot from London and several from Cayman Islands. That was a long trip, huh? We enjoyed some ice cream and people watching before heading up the hill about 15 minutes from the port to the castle. It was here that we got a wonderful view of Cannes and also walked into a ancient church, Notre Dame de l'Esperance (Our Lady of Hope), having it's Good Friday service. We journeyed back down the hill and watched Boules being played. We had seen this the other day in Nice, but weren't sure what it was until doing some reading. It is the "horseshoes" of Provence and the Riviera except instead of horsehoes, heavy metal balls are used. After enjoying the game for a little bit, we walked back to the train station where we got our tickets and had to run for the next train leaving for Nice. It was leaving in 2 minutes. We made it and were on the fast train back to Nice. The train only made one stop so we were back in Nice in 25 minutes. When we got to the Nice train station, we were able to purchase our train tickets to Italy for when we leave here on April 18th. All in all, a great day!