Cannes

Cannes, town in south-east France, in the Alpes-Maritimes Department, on the Mediterranean Sea near Nice. A fashionable resort on the French Riviera, the city is sheltered by a range of hills. Tourism is the chief industry, but Cannes also has a busy port and is a trade centre for flowers and fruit grown in the region. An international film festival is held here each spring (see Festival de Cannes).

Points of interest in the city include the Church of Notre Dame d'Espérance (15th century); the Lycklama Museum, which has a fine collection of antiquities; and the Promenade de la Croisette, a street lined with luxury hotels and shops. On a nearby island in the Mediterranean is the Abbey of Lérins, a noted centre of learning in the 5th century.

For centuries Cannes was a small fishing village. Napoleon landed here in 1815 after his escape from Elba. Since the 1830s, however, when the British statesman Henry Peter Brougham built a villa here, Cannes has been a popular resort all the year round. Population 70,200 (2005 estimate).