Cannes dates back to the fifth century when the Lérins Islands were inhabited by a religious community. Sailors and fishermen were the only inhabitants of Cannes until the middle of the 19th century when Lord Henry Brougham and Vaux, Lord Chancellor of Great Britain and a famous speaker in the House of Lords, discovered the delights of the area and founded an English colony there. Cannes, lying as it does in the heart of both the traditional Cote d'Azur and today's modern, technological sector of the Cote d'Azur is ideally situated geographically.

• 25 km from the Nice/Cote d'Azur international airport, the second largest in France
• 12 km from Sophia Antipolis, Europe's largest technopole
• 25 km from Nice, the capital of the French Riviera and the fifth largest city in France
• 70 km from the Principality of Monaco
• 80 km from Italy
• 50 km from St Tropez
• 1 hour by plane from Paris

Cannes, "Star" of the Riviera is a magical city, a place of pleasures : sport, gastronomy, leisure, shows, discovery.. Cannes gives to every instant of your days and nights the personal touch that transforms your life into a festival. Cannes is opening its doors to allow you to discover a unique and memorable city, renowned around the world. The Suquet, the Croisette, the Royal Residences, the Palais des Festivals... are offered to you, along with the charms of history and the reality of a city entering the 21st century. There are visits by foot organised by guides, every wednesdays at 2:30pm. 40 f ( 6,10 ) free for children under the age of 12. At the heart of the town, overlooking the sea, between old Cannes and the promenade of "La Croisette", sits the "Palais des Festivals et des Congrès". It's a stone's throw from most of the hotels, shops and lively streets of Cannes and is one of the few conference centres in the world of the size from which you can walk back to your hotel while enjoying the view of the bay.

Over 100 trains leave the Nice Train Station daily, including the Trans Europe Express Nice-Paris. 25 other stations along the coast are on the French and European network. Passengers can take one of the frequently run trains which travels along the gorgeous French Riviera coastline to St. Raphael, on arrival you are able to pick up a taxi in front of the station or simply cross the rail bridge to connect with local buses.

Cannes, the Star of the French Riviera, magical city, a place of pleasures : sport, gastronomy, leisure, shows, discovery... Cannes gives to every instant of your days and nights the personal touch that transforms your life into a festival.

Cannes’ moment of glory takes place in May, with the International Cannes Film Festival, when images of the stars descending the red-carpeted steps of the Palais des Festivals are flashed on television screens worldwide. For many, this city on France’s Côte d’Azur is synonymous with the glamour of this event. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that Cannes is France’s second most important city – after Paris – for business tourism. The chameleon city takes on an identity to suit the temper of each major congress, festival or season. MIDEM, the conference for the music business, takes place in January and turns Cannes into a city of young, fun, music professionals. March brings a sober, suited crowd for MIPIM – the international real-estate market – and October, a conservative crowd for the Tax Free World Exhibition.

This modern city, branded by critics as superficial, grew up from a small fishing town on the south coast of France. In the 11th century, Cannes was owned by monks, whose budget, fattened by wealthy pilgrims, allowed them to expand beyond their monastery to the nearby Island of St Honorat. They built a square tower on the top of the hill, as a lookout post for Saracen pirates. It still stands, next to the Castre Museum, in the heart of Le Suquet, Cannes’ Old Town that was built on the site of a Roman military camp. The fishing tradition lives on and fish caught at the Vieux Port – to the west of the Palais des Festivals – are brought daily by the fishermen to the covered Forville Market, where they are sold by their wives, who rarely fit the city’s glamorous image.