Mad Men Do Cannes

It was so very pleasant to leave Nowhereshire at about 9.30 this morning to arrive in Cannes at about 3.00 local time and promptly descend upon the beach, which was jam-packed with locals and the occasional pale Brit. Some 10-year-old boys were playing a game that involved throwing a football at one another's heads, which didn't seem too fun - especially when a stray ball bonked me on the head at one point. They were very apologetic but I (rather good-naturedly, I think) told them that, "c'est normal." I was just glad to be able to wear shorts and flipflops.

Cannes itself was pretty busy, especially in our part of town (near to La Californie) where they were holding a show-jumping event (Cannes Jumping International - AKA le jumping). I don't really like horses but I was thinking about going in to find myself a Jilly Cooper style cad ("hi, is your name Rupert Campbell-Black? Sorry, I mean Jean-Paul de la France?") but decided against it.

I might have missed the film festival this year but I arrived just in time for the Cannes Lions 2008, which is the "55th international advertising festival." Papa is convinced he was going to be running into clients and colleagues all over the place. I, on the other hand, am hoping that last week's Campaign Guide to Who is Hot in Media research will pay off. At the very least, it would be nice if Don Draper were to make an appearance at Café 72.

The rest of the long weekend will hopefully consist of a trip to St Trop, lots of beach action and probably un peu de shopping, preceded by a spuntino at the usual place (Taverne Lucullus, which hopefully won't have become a victim of its only publicity after being featured in The Observer). The forecast is looking slightly better at the moment so it looks set to be a fun weekend, as long as Papa doesn't suffer too much from the banter overload.