Combing for Beaches

Although it was my intention not to do much more than lie on a beach on this trip to Cannes, that doesn't mean it always has to be the same beach. Within ten minutes' walk of our flat, there are three decent beaches: the public beach on the Croisette (water is usually clear and there is plenty of room to swim but often gets very crowded), the Sunrise Beach, which is on the east coast of the Palm Beach peninsular (quiet but often too seaweedy), and Bijou Plage, on the west side of Palm Beach, (lovely and clear but slightly further away). I spent much of yesterday on Bijou Plage: in the morning, I ran and then immediately and gloriously immersed myself in the water, and then I spent the rest of the day lying reading on the soft sand and swimming out to the pontoon when I needed to cool off.

Today, though, I thought I'd go a little further afield; specifically to the Ile Sainte-Marguerite, which is almost within swimming distance of the Cannes shore and where Leonardo DiCaprio (or was it his evil twin?) was imprisoned in L'homme au Masque de Fer. It only takes 15 minutes to get there by boat and at about 2 km long by 500 m broad, the island is easily explorable in an afternoon. As I had my camera and a mini-tripod with me, I was in search of scenic vistas that also had places for me to rest my tripod so I went to the fort but abandoned that idea once I realised that il faut payer.

The island is big enough for everyone to find their own bit of beach (well, rocky, craggy cove, more like). I headed for the least touristy part of the island so I wouldn't have to share my fun with a self-timer (so to speak) with large numbers of (mainly French) tourists. The island curators thoughtfully provided a range of stone picnic tables and logs throughout, which proved useful rests for the tripod. Unfortunately, though, although I managed to get the hang of timing my self-timed leaps correctly, my camera isn't clever enough to get the focus right and hence I am somewhat blurry in most of those photos.

Work done, it was time for lunch (I brought my own: melon and prosciutto-type ham), swimming (beach shoes definitely necessary with all the rocks) and reading (a biography of Katherine Parr).