It wasn’t until the 1920s that ‘the season’ on the French Riviera, including in Cannes, began to switch from winter to summer. Prior to that, the great, good and wealthy had repaired there from autumn onwards, to escape the dismal climes of northern Europe. They then left in summer, for the sun was deemed too searing and bright for fair skins. These days, of course, it’s the other way round.
If you want to be in Cannes when things are really buzzing, the beaches are packed like platters of canapés, prices are at their highest but nightlife and clubs swing through till dawn, then high summer is the time for you.
Cannes is only slightly less warm, but much less crowded in the shoulder months of May, June, September and October. Most things are open, too, and the pace pleasantly less frenzied (though please see below for the dangers of visiting during the May film fest).
Winter, too, still has its advocates. Walking the Croisette on a January morning, sun and sky as clear as can be, light sparkling the Med and the prospect of lunch on a restaurant terrace in the offing – it’s really not bad at all.
