CANNES
We decided we needed a day to relax. To lounge around and do nothing. We were not impressed with the beach in Nice so after asking people at the hostel and the people at the tourism office, we decided to beach in Cannes was our best bet. This worked out because we had wanted to go to Cannes anyways and walk around while the film festival was going on. (The Cannes Film Festival, in case you were wondering.) After waking up late we caught a train that took around 30 mins over to Cannes.
Cannes was beautiful. Compared to Nice, Cannes is a resort town. More palm trees, touristy restaurants and shops, etc. Nice is more like a large working city. We got off the train and walked only 3 blocks or so to the beach, and it was like walking through Monaco again, or what I would picture the nice areas outside of LA (orange county) looking like. Ritzy shops and expensive cars….
We reached the beach and the area was full of people (again) and tents and vendors, all taking advantage of the ongoing film festival. They had a HUGE screen set up on the beach for showing films, unfortunately they had shown Star Wars the week before.
We got down to the actual beach and were relieved to see SAND. A huge sandy beach. No rocks in site. We plopped down our stuff and enjoyed the sun.
Now on to Sarah. There were seven us traveling in Nice/Cannes, Sarah, Janean, Leah, Erin, Jon, Joe, and me. Sarah is not exactly high maintnance, but she is definitely more than the rest of us. She is also incredibly short and LIVES in heels or stilettos. She even told us that she was going to wear heels back when we did the Cinque Terre hike. She tells us that is hurts her feet to wear flat shoes, because she is used to walking on heels and they use a different part of your leg blah blah. She didn’t bring anything but heels and flip flops for the shower with her. She wore flip flops on the hike, luckily but this day she wore her black STILETTOs to the beach. We could not help but to make fun of her and tell her she was crazy.
When we got to the beach she decided to walk around first. Her and Janean went to shop and get food. Apparently, while they were eating lunch they saw this very attractive frenchman that Sarah pointed out immediately. I don’t know exactly what happened but he ended up following them out or something and stopping them to talk, then they left to have espresso with him. He told her he was a TV producer working for the Cannes festival, and then he asked her if she wanted to go with him to a party that night for the festival. Sarah is the type to especailly get caught up in these things so she immediately wanted to. Janean, however, who was trying to be sensible, didn’t want her to go. The guy said he had only one extra ticket, but would try to get another one if they would both meet him to go. They got his business card and left to find us. This entire time Sarah was wearing her bikini, with a stretchy flowing skirt and tank top, and her stilettos. Janean was wearing a bathing suit, sweatpant style skirt, and tshirt and flip flops. They were not dressed to be going to any fancy parties. They met us and Sarah wanted to go back and change and meet him. Janean thought she was crazy, he needed them to meet him in just over an hour, and the train back to Nice would be almost 30 mins each way, not including time to get back and change.
After arguing and all of us thinking she was crazy to even be thinking about going, Sarah decided to set off and meet him by herself. We told her not to, and she said we werent in charge, and she was 23 years old and could make her own decisions. She said well, “when in Europe….” And turned around and left.
We were a little worried and disturbed, but were also irritated that she left the rest of the group, to do something we felt foolish. We set off to explore the rest of the film festival and to find dinner. We ended up in front of the theatre that the awards show was to be at (AKA the RED CARPET) and after realizing the show started in two hours, decided to wait for the stars to arrive. We had a decent view, there was the huge red carpet, with guards scattered on either side. There was a walkway on either side of them, then a metal baricade. We were about 3 people back from the baricade, and had a plain view of the carpet (all except the 8ft man in front of Erin and I.) People began arriving around an hour later, and we found out that it was the final night of the festival, the awards were on that night and Chronophobia was premiering with Penelope Cruz. Many french and british actors and actresses arrived, all blinded by the light of the paparazzi and dressed in their best (just like the Oscars, etc.) and while it was hard to see everything due to the crowd and all of the photographers, there was a huge screen showing you who was arriving at the very beginning of the carpet. While I studied the screen I suddenly froze. I tried to look harder, because I suddenly saw a bag that was very familiar and out of place (a large louis vuitton messenger bag, just like Sarah’s) Ironically the skirt the person was wearing was familiar, and so was the pink chiffon wrap/scarf. I tried to stutter and ask my friends “umm… guys….umm… is that SARAH!!?!” but before I could even get the words out Jon and Joe were freaking out and then everyone else. Apparently she was walking past us immediately after I saw her on the screen and we were going NUTS. Due to our reactions, those by us were straining to see which movie star had just made their appearance, and we were screaming in disbelief. We had know idea that the Cannes Film Festival Awards Ceremony was the party she was going to, and she had no idea we would be watching the red carpet behind baricades!!! We honestly could not believe our eyes. Better yet, everyone entering the theatre around her was dressed in these gorgeous versace and dior gowns and the men in tuxedos. The guy that escorted her was in a tuxedo. And I must reiterate, she was dressed in a bikini, teal green stretch skirt, a light pink tank top, and her black stilletos. She had a light pink chiffon scarf in her purse that she had wrapped around her to dress herself up slightly, but instead of having an evening bag or clutch she had a large messenger style bag or school bag. A louis vuitton bag. A FAKE louis vuitton bag.
To make this story even better, soon after we saw Sarah the more reconizable stars began to arrive. I cant remember the order, but the following stars walked the red carpet, less than 10ft from us:
- Hilary Swank
- Penlope Cruz
- Morgan Freeman
- Tommy Lee Jones
- Selma Hayek
- The asian girl from “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon”
- Kristen Scott Thomas
- And many more I cannot remember….
Hilary Swank came back out of the theatre and came down the side aisle in front of us to sign autographs. I didn’t get one since I was 3 people back but we did get as many pictures as we could (when we werent blocked by 7ft tall men or blocked by other cameras)
The ironic part of all of this is:
- we had no idea where Sarah was going
- we had no idea where the red carpet was, and had no intention of going to watch the stars that night
Can you IMAGINE the shock among all of us when our friend walked past us on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, dressed in the same clothes she wore to the beach??? I am positive she will turn up in US weekly or PEOPLE on the worst dressed party pages…
And Janean… well she went back to find Sarah instead of going to the Red Carpet with us, and she found her, then found the guy, and he had gotten an extra ticket for her, but he told Janean she couldn’t go in flip flops (she too was in her beach wear.) She was not dressed, at all, and there was no time to go to any stores.
So as much as we made fun of Sarah for wearing HEELS to the BEACH, if she hadnt she would not have been able to attend the Cannes Film Festival Awards. How incredibly bizzarre.
We left the area once all the stars were in and the awards started, and we just went straight back to our hostel. We boarded the train to Nice, grabbed food, and got in cabs to go home. We were all in shock.
Sarah never came back that night, we coudlnt get hold of her (she gave us his cell phone) and she never called. THANKFULLY she showed up 15 mins before checkout the next morning, and told us her crazy stories. The whole thing is CRAZY!
It was such an incredibly stupid thing to do, and she is crazy to leave us all with some french guy, but had to give her a little credit for making it into such a high profile star studded event. Afterwards they went to a restaurant hosting a private afterparty, and Tommy Lee Jones ate at the table next to her. She stayed out all night with everyone from his work, the other producers and went to the club….
The six of us went back, got some wine and played cards at the hostel with other backpackers and students, exchanging stories. We met people from Colorado, Tennessee, etc.
Two completely different nights, but both very fun.
My night personally came to a drastic end. We were staying in a 10 person room, and I was up till 3am making phone calls and talking to people. I was the last one in to go to bed. When I came in the room I left the lights off, as a courtesy, and my friend Erin stirred in her sleep. She woke up, and said “Cheryl…. Be careful, someone puked all over the floor….” I was grossed out, but I grabbed a bunk to sturdy myself and made my way to the back of the dorm to my bed (my bed was the very last one back from the door) After about three steps I slipped… badly (I had no idea I had even stepped into it.) I completely wiped out and landed on my back in a PUDDLE of puke. Someone was throwing up all night from the TOP BUNK. Sarah, who was off dancing with stars, had the bottom bunk and all of her stuff was below…. Being puked on. I have never been so grossed out in my life. I knew hostels would be an adventure, I kept saying to myself “you get what you pay for…” I did not expect to land in a puddle of puke, with a white skirt and white sweater on. I immediately ran to the shower to wash off and threw my clothes in a sink to soak. I tried washing them or at least rinsing them, then I made my way back to the room. I grabbed the bunk bed, and climbed across FOUR bunk (who cares who was sleeping in them) I got to my end of the room and threw the windows open then went to sleep.
Definitely one of the strangest nights of my life.
One of our friends went to the Cannes film festival. We just HAPPENED to see her there. We saw tons of movie stars. I slipped and fell on someones vomit in our room at like 4am.
Definitely a weekend to remember.
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