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General sight of the Hôtel Majestic Barrière hostel, on the Croisettes of Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes

France · Europe occidentale

Cannes

A festival and trade-fair city on the Croisette, busiest in May, June and September.

Une page de destination est organisée autour du temps : quand le lieu est incontournable, quels événements le rendent tel, et comment il évolue au fil de l'année — puis la géographie pratique (aéroports, marinas, quartiers, zones hôtelières).

Lord Brougham, a former Lord Chancellor of England, built a villa on the Bay of Cannes in the 1830s after being turned back from Nice by a cholera quarantine, and the English aristocracy who followed him built the winter colony that the railway and the casino later expanded into a full resort town. Before that accident of routing, the bay between Nice and the Estérel massif held only a minor settlement of Ligurian-era origins. Roughly 74,000 people live in Cannes today, a population that several times a year is joined by tens of thousands of visitors tied to a single industry's calendar rather than to the town itself.

The Croisette, the palm-lined waterfront boulevard, and the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès at its center are the fixed points around which that calendar turns. The Cannes Film Festival each May is the best known of the town's fixtures; MIPIM, the property industry's market, takes the same building in March, and Cannes Lions, the advertising and marketing industry's festival, takes it again in June. Yachting supplies a second, later peak: the Cannes Yachting Festival, one of Europe's largest in-water boat shows, fills the Vieux Port and Port Pierre Canto each September, overlapping with the older Régates Royales classic-yacht regatta.

Away from these weeks, Cannes functions as an ordinary if well-appointed Riviera resort: Le Suquet, the hillside old town above the port, predates all of it, and the Îles de Lérins, a short public ferry ride offshore, hold a fort and a working monastery largely untouched by the town's trade-show economy.

01Quand Cannes matières

Douze mois d'activité calculés à partir des événements figurant au calendrier de cette destination — l'importance de chaque événement est répartie sur les jours qu'il occupe. Les événements à l'origine de chaque mois sont indiqués en regard de la barre.

Jan
Feb
Mar MIPIM
Apr
May Cannes Film Festival, amfAR Gala Cannes
Jun Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity
Jul
Aug
Sep Cannes Yachting Festival, Régates Royales de Cannes
Oct
Nov
Dec
Cannes Film Festival · MayMIPIM · MarCannes Lions · JunYachting Festival and Régates Royales · Sep
A panorama of Cannes as seen from Suquet Tower in Le Suquet, the old town of Cannes Hotel Carlton Cannes Francja - widok z nowego portu Fireworks festival of Cannes Port de l'île Saint-Honorat, Cannes Le Suquet is the old quarter of Cannes, probably best known to tourists as the climbing, winding cobbled lane lined with Le Suquet is the old quarter of Cannes, probably best known to tourists as the climbing, winding cobbled lane lined with

02Le calendrier ici

À venir

Chaque événement du calendrier

Hotel Splendid, Cannes, Cannes Film Festival Film Cannes Film Festival May 11–22, 2027 Located in the heart of the glamorous city of Cannes —close to the Palais du Festival and famous Croisette walk— the Vieux, Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Affaires & Finance Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity Jun 21–25, 2027 The Baie des Milliardaires, also known as the Anse de l'Argent Faux, as seen from Cap d'Antibes, amfAR Gala Cannes Philanthropie amfAR Gala Cannes May 20, 2027 Located in the heart of the glamorous city of Cannes —close to the Palais du Festival and famous Croisette walk— the Vieux, Cannes Yachting Festival Navigation de plaisance Cannes Yachting Festival Sep 7–12, 2027 Affaires & Finance MIPIM Mar 16–19, 2027 Located in the heart of the glamorous city of Cannes —close to the Palais du Festival and famous Croisette walk— the Vieux, Régates Royales de Cannes Navigation de plaisance Régates Royales de Cannes Sep 18–25, 2027

S'abonner au calendrier de cette destination (ICS) · Ouvrir dans le calendrier

03Pourquoi c'est important

Cannes concentrates three separate industries' annual set-pieces inside one calendar year, each renting the same stretch of waterfront and each drawing an audience keyed to its own trade rather than to Cannes as a destination: film in May, property in March, advertising and marketing in June, with the yachting industry's own commercial week layered on in September. In our reading, Cannes is best understood less as a single destination than as a venue the international circuit leases by the week — its own, quieter identity is easiest to see in the months when nobody has booked the Palais.

04L'année, mois par mois

JanvierCannes is at its quietest; the Croisette's hotels run at winter pace and the town largely belongs to residents.
FévrierStill quiet, though preparations for March's MIPIM delegations begin behind the scenes; mild Riviera winter weather draws the first off-season visitors.
MarsMIPIM brings four days of property-industry delegations to the Palais des Festivals, with yachts in the Vieux Port hired out as meeting rooms for the week.
AvrilA shoulder month between MIPIM and the film festival, as hotels reset for the calendar's busiest stretch and the seafront beach clubs begin reopening.
MaiThe Cannes Film Festival takes over the Croisette for twelve days in the second half of the month, with competition premieres, the industry's largest film market, and free public screenings on the beach.
JuinCannes Lions fills the Palais for five days in the fourth week with the advertising, media and technology industries, as the beach season reaches its stride along the bay.
JuilletHigh summer on the coast: the trade-fair calendar pauses and the beaches and Îles de Lérins carry most of the town's visitor traffic.
AoûtThe peak of Riviera beach season, with Cannes busy on holiday traffic rather than industry delegations; Le Suquet's hillside stays cooler in the evenings than the seafront.
SeptembreThe Cannes Yachting Festival, one of Europe's largest in-water boat shows, fills the Vieux Port and Port Pierre Canto, overlapping at the month's end with the Régates Royales classic-yacht regatta.
OctobreThe wider circuit has moved on to Paris and the autumn auction calendar; Cannes returns to a quieter rhythm as the sea cools.
NovembreA low month for visitors, with mild but wet weather; November typically brings the year's heaviest rainfall.
DécembreThe town settles into its off-season ahead of the holidays, with the Croisette's lights and a modest local festive season drawing regional rather than international visitors.
Le Suquet is the old quarter of Cannes, probably best known to tourists as the climbing, winding cobbled lane lined with

05Météo par mois

Mois°C max.Bas °CPluie mmMer °C
Janvier13.63.782.513.5
Février13.93.757.013.5
Mars16.06.060.213.5
Avril18.28.778.215.0
Mai21.912.651.818.5
Juin25.516.332.522.0
Juillet28.218.718.723.5
Août28.618.823.924.0
Septembre25.315.492.122.5
Octobre21.312.1134.320.0
Novembre17.17.9145.417.5
Décembre14.34.6104.615.0
 Source: Wikipedia climate table for Cannes (station Cannes 06, 1991-2020 normals, Meteo-France via Meteociel.fr); sea temperatures are a modeled Riviera regional estimate anchored to Seatemperature.org's published monthly extremes for Cannes, not a site-specific buoy series. Moyennes à long terme ; une semaine donnée peut différer.

06Comment s'y rendre et se déplacer

AéroportsNice Côte d'Azur (NCE) · 24 km · commercial — the main international gateway for the western Riviera.Cannes-Mandelieu (CEQ) · 5 km · private aviation — 5 km west of the city; today mainly business jets and helicopters, with traffic peaking during the film festival and Cannes Lions.
Aviation privéeCannes-Mandelieu, immediately west of the city, is the local field for business jets and helicopters and is heavily used during the film festival and Cannes Lions; Nice Côte d'Azur, 24 km away, carries the region's scheduled and long-haul traffic.
HélicoptèreHelicopter shuttles connect Nice airport to Cannes-Mandelieu in a few minutes and run at their heaviest during festival and market weeks, as an alternative to the coastal road.
MarinasVieux Port (Cannes) — the old harbor beside the Palais des Festivals, used for festival-week hospitality and as the main basin of the Yachting Festival.Port Pierre Canto — the marina at the eastern end of the Croisette near Port Canto, taking larger yachts and serving as a Yachting Festival annex.
Se déplacerThe Croisette and the old town are walkable, and a local bus network covers the wider city. The main rail station, Cannes, sits on the Marseille-Ventimiglia line with frequent regional and some TGV service. A car is of limited use during festival weeks, when large stretches of the seafront are closed or reserved.

07Où se trouvent les choses

Quartiers

La Croisettethe waterfront promenade and its grand hotels, the address for festival premieres and the Palais des Festivals.
Le Suquetthe hillside old town above the port, Cannes before tourism, with the best public view over the bay.
Le Carré d'Orthe shopping quarter just behind the Croisette, dense with designer flagship stores.
La Californiea hillside residential quarter of villas east of the center.

Quartiers d'hôtels

The Croisette's row of Belle Époque and mid-century hotels facing the bay is the address that defines festival-week demand, with rates and availability there driven almost entirely by the trade calendar rather than the season. Le Suquet and the streets just behind the Croisette offer a smaller-scale, quieter alternative within walking distance. During the film festival, Cannes Lions and MIPIM, pressure on rooms extends well beyond any one quarter and into Antibes, Mougins and Nice.

Quartiers gastronomiques

The Marché Forville and the lanes of Le Suquet around it carry the town's everyday restaurant trade and local specialties such as socca and panisses. The Croisette's hotel terraces and public-beach restaurants face the bay and carry the festival crowd.

Institutions culturelles

Palais des Festivals et des Congrèsthe film festival's home and the building most associated with Cannes worldwide, with the Walk of Fame handprints outside.
Musée de la Castrehoused in Le Suquet's medieval castle, covering Mediterranean archaeology and art.
Îles de LérinsÎle Sainte-Marguerite and Île Saint-Honorat, reachable by a short public ferry, holding a fort and a working monastery.

Commerce

Rue d'Antibes is the main shopping street, with Le Carré d'Or behind the Croisette holding the concentration of designer boutiques; smaller galleries and independent shops line Le Suquet's lanes.

08Comment le lieu évolue

Cannes moves through three distinct trade-show takeovers in a single year — property in March, film in May, advertising in June — before settling into an ordinary beach-resort summer and a yachting-industry September, then a quiet autumn and winter with the year's heaviest rain.

09Historique

Cannes began as a minor fishing settlement below Le Suquet, with origins tracing to Ligurian and later Roman occupation of the bay. Its transformation started in the 1830s when Lord Brougham built a villa here and drew the English aristocracy who followed him into building winter residences along what became the Croisette. The railway's arrival and the building of casinos and grand hotels in the late nineteenth century turned that aristocratic colony into a resort town proper. The Cannes Film Festival, conceived in 1939 partly in response to political interference at the Venice festival, was delayed by the outbreak of war and finally held for the first time in 1946; its growth over the following decades into the industry's largest film market, alongside the later arrival of MIPIM and Cannes Lions, built the trade-show economy that now defines the town's calendar.

À proximité

The field on the warm-up lap before the 1996 Monaco Grand Prix Monaco Monaco A sovereign principality, at its busiest for the Grand Prix in June and in September. Saint-Tropez- -06-1 France Saint-Tropez A Riviera fishing port turned yacht harbor, busiest from July through early October.

Dans la presse

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Sources

  1. Cannes, Wikipedia encyclopedia consulté 6 September 2026
  2. Cannes-Mandelieu Airport, Wikipedia encyclopedia consulté 6 September 2026
  3. Cannes France - official tourism site, Cannes Destination / Palais des Festivals et des Congrès tourism consulté 6 September 2026
Confiance: Moyen · Mis à jour 10 September 2026Signaler une erreur sur cette page