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Cannes occupies a particular position in the European imagination that few cities of its size could claim. Strung along the Golfe de la Napoule on the Côte d'Azur, it is a place where the Provençal coast reaches something close to its most theatrical expression, the Massif de l'Esterel rising in rust-red volcanic rock to the west while the Lérins Islands sit just offshore, close enough to reach by a short boat crossing. The city's name travels the world each May when the film festival transforms the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès into the centre of the global cinema industry, but Cannes functions as a serious destination across the full calendar, not merely as a backdrop for celebrity photographs.

The Boulevard de la Croisette is the axis around which most first visits organise themselves. This broad seafront promenade stretches for nearly two kilometres between the Palais des Festivals and the Palm Beach casino, lined with grand hotels whose names have appeared in European travel writing for well over a century. Behind it, the old quarter of Le Suquet climbs a hill above the Vieux Port, its narrow lanes and the tower of the Église Notre-Dame d'Espérance offering a counterpoint to the polished glamour below. The covered Marché Forville, a short walk from the port, is where the city does its actual daily business in produce, cheese, and charcuterie, and it gives a more honest account of Provençal life than the boutiques along the Croisette.