Cannes Day 9 Last day-May 19

Last day at the Villa. Woke up around 10 and made my last poached eggs and toast. I finished packing and left for the bus to Cannes and then the train to Nice. The others were off to explore the South of France and Mike left last night for home. The train was pretty easy and luckily there was a nice gentleman who helped me carry by bags down the stairs. I walked off the train and started hunting for a cab.  I asked a bus driver where my hotel was and he said right behind me. It was literally 2 blocks away. Thank goodness! The hotel is awesome- not skeezy or gross. There was free WiFi and a pool. I asked where the beach was and it looked pretty far on the map but I didn't care. I was going to jump in the French sea before I left the country.

Even though the receptionist gave me a map and pointed out exactly how to get to the beach, I got lost. I ended up at Terminal 1 at the airport! I don't remember ever being taught how to read a map in high school, do you? Well, I need a class because it's so frustrating. I'm one of those people that need to stand on the map to figure out where I am!
So I walked, and walked and walked and finally-the ocean! How beautiful!

 It's all rocky but people still lay out on them. I was going to do it this time. I wasn't going to leave France without either going in the water or going topless. I did both. The water was spectacular! You have to go all the way in because the rocks make it too difficult to stand. I can't tell you the free feeling you get by doing something the French do everyday. It's nothing to them-they're just boobs! I loved it. I have a whole new feeling about nudity! I think we should do it all of the time!!

At this point I was really hungry. For a beach town, they really didn't have too many restaurants. They had some Brasserie's or snack shops but I really wanted to sit down and eat a meal. All I found was a local salad restaurant. That's all they serve is salad! The salad was 'ok' but the coffee was the best I've had.
I went back to the beach and watched some boys play a strange game of tag football.

The rest of the night I just relaxed, took a bath in the big tub and had my last glass of wine in France.

Overall, this trip would have been much more fun if I knew the language a little better and if I was just there to site see.. I would have felt much more relaxed if there was no agenda and we didn't have to deal with the rudeness and disorganization of the festival or the land of "no". Nice was my favorite or maybe Old Mougins... or maybe the villa...hmmm. hard decision!

Cannes Day 8-May 18

Finally in the town of Antibes after  looking for the bus for 2 hours! So frustrating! We met a girl on the bus and she told us where to get off for the beach. Then she said she got invited to some VIP party by some guy and she wasn't sure if she wanted to go. Um...HELLO? We'll go! We've had nothing but bad luck on this trip!

I saw the beautiful beach and I was off. I left my roomies for the afternoon. I just knew I needed my toes in the water for a while. Walking around the beach is not the same as in the states. They don't walk. They just sit and watch the ocean. The water feels wonderful. Not cold and not warm. The topless bathing didn't even phase me. Well, I considered it for a long time but I just couldn't. Americans are just so  prude when it comes to nudity!

I walked around and found some really expensive shops. I found another panini shop and ordered what I thought was a cheese and tomato sandwich. Because my french isn't the best, it ended up being a cheese, tomato and beef panini with a hair. Didn't know that was included! The Universe is funny how it just keeps piling on the poo isn't it?

I walked back and found the bus stop. I spoke to a couple of french women but had no idea what they were saying. One women kept talking to me about fashion and models and how it relates to the Cannes Film Festival. I think she was drunk. I told her "Je suis actrice en dans film ice". She got so excited I had to give her my business card!

Our friend Paola was at the Villa sunning by the pool. It was nice to see another face from home. She told us all about her experience working on a "Tree of Life" in the art department. You know the movie with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn? We ordered 3 Mr. Pizzas and had a fun pizza night.

Cannes Day 7-Screening Day May 17

This morning I rushed to put on a dress and run to the festival. We had to be at the screening at 1:30 but I wanted to leave early and check he train schedule and buy some gifts from the Cannes gift shop. I found 2 over priced t-shirts.

While I was downtown, the pool boy came to the Villa. Gayle struck up a conversation with him and it turns out he's a very good friends with the producer of big time films like Taxi Driver and Gorillas in the Mist. He took our film and said he would show it to him tonight. We're all hopeful but not expecting anything to happen.
I met the rest of the group at the registration area and we were ready to go. Everyone had their invitations so there was no issues today until...

We sat down in the small 30 seat theater and the head of the 48 Hour festival announce that yesterdays screenings there was some glitches with the films so they would show those ones first. Ok no big deal...I hope. They played the first film and the sound was off. The second film played and stopped right in the middle. The next film got all the way to the end and cut off right when the joke of the film was about to play. My heart sank. I didn't even care about our film at this point. I was just so sad for them. Then our film loaded up and I did my Namaste hands. "please please please let it play all the way through" It did! It was the best luck we've had the entire trip. After our film, more films had glitches. This was the Festivals fault. The biggest, best, most prestigious film festival in the world, had technical issues. Delightful!

After the movie and some shmoozing in the hallway, we looked for something to eat. We found a restaurant away from the festival. French tip: if a place is not packed with locals or anyone for that matter, don't eat there. It was "ok". I ordered escargot and salmon. The look on my face tells how the snails were. Salmon wasn't great but it was the only meal in France I didn't like. Afterwards, we met with a few of the 48 hour filmmakers to hear them say how great out film was. That was nice but no one recognized me as the person in the film! We went back to the villa and guess what-we drank some champagne!! Some of the crew tried to play drunk poker. It was hilarious! Probably not for Mike since he doesn't drink. Some funny quotes did come out it though such as:

What does an 80 year old butt smell like? Depends.

Me: Life goes up and down. You need the negative to appreciate the positive-like Yin and Yang
Mike: Yeah, well, I'm getting a little tired of the Yang.

Cannes Day 6-May 16

Day before the screening. I decided today I will have a 'me day'.  Come to find out that's how all of France felt. Mondays are like our Sundays-almost everything is closed. I didn't know this until I got all the way to Grasse. Well, first I woke up and did some housework, laundry, and made myself poached eggs and toast. I knew I didn't want any hussle or bussle or stress today. I just wanted to go where the Universe lead me.

I took a 20 minute bus to Grasse-the perfume capital of the world. Like I said everythings pretty much closed on Mondays but the perfume museum. As soon as you walk in the town you start to sneeze. It's a quaint little town but you can tell they cater to the tourists. It was fun walking around the perfume museum and seeing how it's made. I found a sandwich stand and ate the best four cheese panini in the world. They make them with baguettes so it's super long and crispy. It was sooo good.

 I came back to the villa and got some more alone time at the pool. How relaxing. Mike came back from his day at work at the festival and said he got some leads on buyers for the film. He was at the Cannes Film Festival all day and then he showed me how he was biologically incapable of floating in water. Ironic ha?

Tomorrow we'll see if each of us gets in to our screening without hassle. Let's see how this goes. The rest of the night was dinner and drinks and then a walk up the hill to Old Mougins for some dessert.

Cannes Day 5 May 15

Woke up a 10:30am! It was so late to start the day. I wanted to go to the beach but opted for some shopping. I needed to find gifts for the friends that helped me get here. I woke up to a warm chocolate croissant waiting for me. I normally don't like chocolate, but in France, everything was different. It was delicious! Special thanks to Sherri and Bill for walking down the hill and retrieving them.

I got dressed and got on the bus headed for Cannes. I  thought I would go to the local spots instead of the festival. I found a nice gentleman that spoke English and he told me where to go for a coffee. I'm now doing what the french do, sitting in a cafe drinking the smallest coffee in history.

French tip: if you need to find a restroom, always ask a women. They understand so much better than a man when you really need to go.

Back to the villa in a hurry to get ready for the cocktail party we were invited to. At that point, I had only eaten a pear and a croissant and it was 3pm. I was so late. We had to meet the 48 hour rep at 4:30 to get the day passes for the market.  Nothing was going smoothly regarding the festival passes so we could only hope!

 I put on my flower dress and rushed to the bus stop. The 48 hour representative was there-Sunday-to give us our passes we requested the days before. These were obviously no longer eligible. He said we could try and switch them in the accreditation office for a pass today. The dreaded accreditation office! Ugh. We tried and failed. They told me I was over my limit of day passes (the max was 3 and I had 4) they told Sherri and Bill they couldn't exchange theirs because the days had passed. Marianne and Mike were the only 2 that were able to get in. No cocktail party for us. It was a mess. I had to just forget the badge situation and move on. We decided to hang around and look for some celebrity sightings. We would have had to wait at least another hour. We opted for dinner instead.

We found a cute french cafe with cute french waiters.They know they are cute too-sort of like bartenders in clubs in the U.S. They know the chicks are after them! We met a nice women that was also promoting her film at the table next to us. She said she was jealous of us because we had a Cannes strap to hold our badge. We laughed because we had no badge at the end of our strap and she had an 'all access' badge that got her into not only the market, but the screenings as well. Jokes on her! We exchanged our business cards and films we were promoting.

When we got home we all sat around and watched her 10 minute film. It was one of those 'Sixth Sense'- type movies where you see the woman's husband but you find out later he's really dead. It was a confusing movie that had a strange ending. I wonder how they felt about our film.

The night ended with more wine and wonderful dialogue. Nights at the villa are so great. We all sit around and talk about the day while we Facebook!

Cannes day 4 May 14

I had a dream that Seth Rogan and I were madly in love. I think we had a fight and I was so upset because I loved him so much. He got down on his knees and professed his love to me. Then he showed me the house he wanted to buy for us. Strange.

Me: How do we get in to see a screening?

Mike: You make a film. The best place to be is on the other side of the carpet.

What a day! Mike went down to Cannes to check things out and asked that we wait for him before we come down. As soon as he text us it was go time. We were going to have to buy a day pass for 40E each. We got to Cannes, found Mike and waited in a LONG line for our passes. I somehow managed to get a free pass because I was an actress. They checked for my business card and checked to see if I was on IMDB then they gave me my pass. They gave everyone else such a hard time. Gayle (Marianne's husband) wasn't allowed in, Sherri was told she already had her passes and then had pay 80E. Well this pass only got us in to the market -still no movie screenings. We went to the market and found a San Diego actress who told us about her movie. The market was gigantic and we were only in a small section.-the Short Film Corner.

Tons of other hopefuls were there to try and sell their film. Marianne and I took off to hit the distributors upstairs. I am not a salesperson so I didn't do very well. It was exhausting. It started raining on the way to the trainstation. There were so many people with umbrellas it was hard not to get hit. We got home and made dinner. Marianne and Gayle made chicken cordon blue with rice and asparagus. It was awesome. We talked for hours and finished all the wine.

It was Saturday night so something must be open to have another drink right? Nothing was open at 10:30pm! Not even a petit casino which is basically like a 7-11. The only hope was to walk up the hill to Old Mougins. Surprisingly, Mike was up for it and so was I. We got all the way up and found a bar to have blush wine. It was heavenly. By then it was midnight. My goodness what a day!

Cannes day 3 May 13

Woke up in my beautiful bed bright eyed! I can hear the frogs and the water fall in the pool. I went up to the main house to make some tea. It was 8:30 am and Sherri and Bill were awake so we got dressed and took a walk around the city of Mougins.

Saw a cheese and fruit shop that was way over priced. But I asked for some frommage brie-that only cost 2,30. The man behind the counter was very intimidating and looked like he refused to speak English. He did. I asked for some brie in my best french. We bought some bread and had a petit d'ejouner.

Gayle and Marianne arrived shortly after. It was so nice and warm we decide to take a walk up the hill to "old Mougins". It was really cool looking but the restaurants were too expensive. I tried out my french and was embarressed when I said "elle dice"-dice is spanish! then I called a women 'madamoselle' when she was clearly a "madam"!

When I tried to tell the waitress-my friends don't eat animal products, I got a blank stare. Maybe because they just couldn't believe it.  The french frown upon vegetarians! The place we found was a little snack place that sold crepes. I got a ham and cheese crepe because I wasn't afraid of their meat.  I'll let  you know how this digests later.

Finally the trip to Cannes. We walked down the hill and found the correct bus stop.

The city was packed. It had the feeling of Hollywood on Oscar day. Everyone wandering around dressed to the nines over paying for gelato and coffee because of the festival. There were cameramen that were posing as paparazzi but were really trying to sell you their photos. Everyone was really dressed up. We went there mainly to find where everything was so we could know where to go the next day. Tonight was a "look see". 

I kept thinking about the fact I was at the biggest film festival in the world yet I still "wanted" -wanted to be in a yacht partying like everyone else, wanted to see the red carpet, wanted to be on the beach where they were showing a movie, wanted cheesecake, wanted a day pass, wanted credentials, wanted to take my shoes off..... I mean MY GOD WOMAN! WAKE UP! This is it. This is the dream. I'm here. I must stay present or it's going to be gone. Tomorrow I'm going back and this time I'll try to stay until someone else says-move.

We didn't see any stars tonight but we did notice Brad Pitt's movie is showing the same day ours-the 17th. Let's see what happens.