The Amazing Race - Day 25

"Dream Come True"

On my first day of French Culture and Civilization, the professor gave a lecture about events happening around France. She covered the entire year, but I stopped paying attention around April because I wasn't supposed to be here after that. However, when she mentioned the Cannes Film Festival in May I found myself paying attention. And taking notes. The Cannes Film Festival is a big deal. Important people go there and do stuff with film. I took notes about how to get into the festival even when you don't have tickets, where the best place was to go star gazing (celebrity stars, not night stars as I originally thought) and why the festival is important. And then I tuned her out again.

Over the next four months, I forgot about the Cannes Film Festival.

One evening my host mom and I started talking about everywhere I was planning on traveling. When I mentioned Nice, she asked if I would be going to the Cannes Film Festival. Suddenly I remembered Cannes and how much I wanted to go there. We finished dinner and then I ran upstairs to check the dates of the Festival against when I would be in Nice. I was going to arrive two days late.

But when you're that close, changing your plans is worth it. Actually, I probably would have changed my plans no matter what.

My first morning in Nice I woke up nice and early for my hostel's free breakfast before heading to Cannes. As luck would have it, I got to sit next to one of the Festival's short film directors from LA. He even had a badge.

I figured if I was running into directors at my hostel in Nice, it would be a piece of cake to run into stars in Cannes. It wasn't.

Everyone I saw in Cannes was walking around with the same "I'm allowed to go into the Festival" badge I had seen earlier that morning. How was I supposed to know who was actually cool enough to get excited about seeing? Just kidding, I was excited to see (and very jealous of) everyone with a badge.

At one point when I was walking back from the beach, I'm pretty sure I walked behind someone famous. I have no idea who they could have been, but they were carrying two iPhones in one hand.

Just when I was about to give up hope and head back to Nice, I saw a large group of people gathering near some barriers. I wandered over and managed to make my way up to the front right next to the red carpet. An hour later, the stars arrived. Now, I'm not one to drop names, so I'll stick with pictures.

 

Two days later I was back in Cannes for the final night of the festival. Unfortunately, my train was 45 minutes late, and I got stuck on the wrong side of the red carpet where all I could see were the sides of people's faces. Once everyone was seated inside, they used the screen outside to let us commoners watch the closing ceremony of the festival. It was a remarkable experience to not only be there, but also listen to them translate everything into French and understand it.

In 5 years I plan on going back to Cannes. Only next time I'll be one of the privileged many walking around with my own badge.