Beaches

Just before tourist season every year, the city of Cannes spends €650,000 to recover sand—some 25,000 cubic meters—that has been swallowed by the sea. They also set up special anti-jellyfish nets until the end of September along Gazagnaire, Mace, and Roubine public beaches so you can swim in peace. Most of the beaches along La Croisette are owned by hotels or restaurants, though this doesn't necessarily mean the hotels or restaurants front the beach. It does mean they own a patch of beachfront bearing their name, from which they rent out chaises, mats, and umbrellas to the public and hotel guests (around €22 per day). One of the most fashionable is the Carlton Hotel's beach. Other beaches where you must pay a fee include Long Beach, Rado Plage, and Zplage, the stretch belonging to the Martinez, which is the largest in Cannes. You can easily recognize public beaches by the crowds; they're interspersed between the color-coordinated private-beach umbrellas, and offer simple open showers and basic toilets (and you can rent a lounger for only €6.70 per day). To be slightly removed from the city traffic and crowds, head west of town where the open stretches of sand run uninterrupted toward Mandelieu. There are a couple of nonsmoking beaches in each sea town across the Riviera. In Cannes, Bijou Plage (also home to Handiplage) and Les Rochers are nonsmoking beaches, and you'll be fined €11 if you're caught lighting up. Plage Macé, near the Palais, runs a beach library from mid-June to August, 10 am to 6 pm. For a €10 deposit readers can sign out books for up to two days; English publications are available.

If you're not a fan of kids at the beach, lay your beach towel far away from the toy-topped poles along Cannes's seafront, which are in place to join up lost children and their parents. If you're at the beach with your children, ask a lifeguard for a bracelet and write your child's name and mobile number on it. Explain to your children to go to the nearest pole if lost.