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Grand Prix and Film Festival

Posted by (Boise, ID, United States) on

We are lucky enough to be staying in Nice May 20-22, during both of these events.
I have been looking into surprising my boyfriend with Grand Prix tickets for Thursday the 21st. The program for Thursday says all the races are "free practice runs" yet it still requires you to purchase tickets? They are discounted from the real races, only 60-70E compared to 230-300. Are the practice runs just as cool to watch and which sections are the best? If we don't have tickets are we going to be able to walk around Monaco, as most of the streets are blocked?

I was reading other posts about the Cannes film festival and some people said there wasn't much to see there. Will we be missing out if we spend all day in Monaco and skip Cannes? Or maybe if we don't buy tickets to the Grand Prix, we can see both towns?

By daytripping, we only have half a day for Nice. Should we make more time for it by skipping Cannes?

Posted by
14 posts

Nice, Monaco, and Cannes are all amazing, so I think no matter where you go you will have an amazing time. Personally, my favorite place was Nice.

Posted by
16039 posts

Cannes...film festival time...if you like traffic, crowds, blocked off streets, and maybe getting a glimpse of a movie star, then go to Cannes. Otherwise, no big deal to miss at that time.

Nice is terrific.

Monaco will have much of the streets closed off in the area of Monte Carlo. The practice runs can be fun to watch if your boyfriend is a Formula 1 fan. It's not as exciting as the race itself or even qualifying, but can still be fun.

I'd suggest Nice and possibly Monaco but skip the GP. (And I'm a GP fan.) Not enough time to see everything and much of Monaco will be closed off.

Posted by
3313 posts

I was in Cannes during the festival mid-day. Cannes is a very tourist-oriented place. It wouldn't be there if hundreds of thousands of Europeans didn't flock there every summer. It has a Beaux Artes atmosphere which I think is cool. But it's not a significant cutltural destination.

If you're there during the day, visitors wander aimlessly among the posters, film crews and other detritus of the festival. Occasionally celebreties make mid-day appearances to throngs of photographers and gasping sightseers. I thought it was worth seeing for the sideshow effect.

Posted by
8700 posts

IMO, Cannes is totally skipable. It's famous for being famous--and not much more--and it's very expensive. Spend more time in Nice. Explore Vieux Nice (Old Nice) on foot. Nice merits at least two days (more if you're art lovers and want to see the Chagall museum and the Matisse museum). Or go to Antibes and walk through the walled old town, visit the Picasso museum, or take a swim. At Antibes the beach is sandy while at Nice it is pebbly.

Posted by
9109 posts

The film festival is mostly a trade show, tickets to screenings are only available to industry types, and the press. But there is a large outdoor screen installed on the beach, and most evenings they show movies from the festival, open to the public. During the festival Cannes is a fun place to be.....probably the best people watching and celebrity spotting anywhere in the world.

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