The Croisette, without the noise

Cannes lives in seasons. There is the week when the whole world arrives at once, and there are the long, luminous months when the bay belongs to the people who actually live here. I am comfortable in both. During the festivals I am used to full lobbies, late dinners and the particular discipline of being seen without being remarked upon. Out of season, I prefer a table at the far end of a terrace and a conversation that runs past midnight.

Where we might meet

The palace hotels of the Croisette, a restaurant in Le Suquet with a view over the old port, a private screening, a boat leaving early for the Lérins islands. If you are staying in Cannes for a few days, an evening engagement often becomes the most civilised part of the trip — dinner first, then the sort of unhurried privacy that a sixty-minute appointment can never offer.

Practicalities

Cannes is forty minutes from Nice Côte d'Azur airport, which makes short-notice travel realistic but not guaranteed. Forty-eight to seventy-two hours of notice is preferred, particularly in May, during the yachting weeks and across the summer. I attend you at your hotel or residence; I do not receive.