I went to Cannes Film Festival on a £30 daily budget — here’s what happened

Cannes is a byword for glamour and expense – but us normal folks have to manage somehow (Picture: Tori Brazier/Getty)

Cannes in May is a star-studded circus, stuffed to the gills with black-tie galas, red carpet premieres and yacht parties.

The world-famous film festival is also the busiest two weeks of the year for a film journalist, rubbing elbows with celebrities but living a very different experience: lugging laptops across town, planning power naps and fretting over a rapidly dwindling bank balance.

During the festival, working days often stretch longer than 16 hours — this is my third year in the trenches. I eat on the go, where and when I can.

My priority is to catch as many screenings as possible during waking hours, but a close second is keeping costs low – around £30 per day – in a city known for glitz and glamour.

Hollywood and the French Riviera are a decadent and elitist mix. This year’s festival saw the likes of Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, Dakota Johnson, Robert Pattinson, Denzel Washington, Rihanna, Leonardo DiCaprio and Paul Mescal roll in.

I’m in a champagne city on a Fanta budget – but we do what we must.

Mission: Impossible’s cast – including Tom Cruise – and director posing for a selfie on the Palais des Festival’s red carpet – very publicly breaking a rule (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

A smooth start

I start my journey on a sold-out easyJet flight from Gatwick to Nice, the closest major airport to Cannes. It goes without a hitch – we even arrive a little early.

For the first time, the bus I need to catch for the remaining 33km perfectly syncs with my arrival. No chauffeured transfer for me – although working journalists do get a voucher covering the cost of this coach journey, so I’m not complaining.

Once in Cannes, I travel almost everywhere on foot, except when I take the local bus to a cinema complex used for mop-up screenings – again, this is free for accredited press. We won’t talk about what Uber or Bolt will charge you for the same journey if you misinterpret the timetable.

A pre-7am flight at least makes for a lovely view flying in over the French Riviera (Picture: Tori Brazier) Ready for a long day of junket interviews and screenings at the festival with my portable office over my shoulder! (Picture: Tori Brazier)

The film festival largely takes place at the Palais des Festivals complex along the Cannes seafront, next to the harbour, where some 40,000 industry heads and press descend for two weeks each May.

Tried and tested tricks

Tourist traps dot the strip, and often a panini from one of them is all I have time for. This sets me back €6.50 (£5.47), which isn’t too offensive.

However, if you go a few streets back from the Croisette, the bread is fresher, the ingredients are better quality, and the price is roughly the same.

To keep costs down, I refuel with free beverages, including coffees and chilled soft drinks, available in the Palais. On several days, I pick up a free lunchtime Coke Zero from the journalists’ rooftop terrace, even if I do have to make a special detour for it.

When restaurants will easily charge you €5 (£4.21) for the same – and for mineral water when you definitely asked for tap – this and taking my bottle to the water fountains are my most reliable hacks.

In the Mediterranean, gelato is obligatory – but it will cost you at least €6 (£5.05) for two scoops (Picture: Tori Brazier) A moment to appreciate that the Cannes Film Festival is partially held on a beach (Picture: Tori Brazier) A Campari party at Cannes, held at one of the Croisette’s swanky beach clubs (Picture: Tori Brazier)

I had hoped to load up on the canapes served at parties, a tried-and-tested method for entertainment journalists trying to fit everything in on their beat (and also eat). This does not go to plan at one villa bash, where I grimace through some of the most flavourless food I’ve ever put in my mouth.

So, well after midnight, I turn to the always-reliable, always-regrettable early morning fast food with friends. Even in Cannes.

Expensive taste

Parties do, however, always come through with free booze. However, on my first night, after a 4am start, I fork out for a glass of Taittinger at Italian Caffe on Bld Jean Hibert. Yes, this does fly in the face of ‘budget’, but it’s also €10 (£8.42) a glass – something I’ve never seen in the UK, so we’ll say it’s a bargain if nothing else.

And when I return to this restaurant towards the end of my stay, I downgrade to a glass of prosecco and save €4 (£3.37).

The prized glass of Taittinger – and a pizza (Picture: Tori Brazier) Covering Cannes is not as glamorous as it seems though (Picture: Tori Brazier)

For the majority of my trip to Cannes, I have access to a kitchenette in the studio where I stayed in Le Suquet, the old quarter and the far side of Cannes to the glitzy strip of luxury celebrity haunts like the Carlton Cannes and Hôtel Martinez.

This means I can head to Aldi to pick up breakfast and snacks, like fruit, milk, cereal, crisps, to keep me going for the first few days.

It is worth, unsurprisingly, also making room in your budget for bakeries in Cannes, specifically for pain au chocolat. They’re not massively cheap at over €2 (£1.68), but they are worth it – plus, they’re easy to scoff while standing in a queue for a screening.

My final few nights are spent in an Ibis bang in the centre of Cannes, which is quiet and also serves a surprisingly varied breakfast buffet. The pastries included are bakery quality and set me up nicely to push through the final days of the festival.

Not quite breakfast at Tiffany’s, but it’ll do (Picture: Tori Brazier)

The budget-buster

During the festival I have to accommodation hop, and meticulously plan the move within my tight schedule. Luckily, I can drop my luggage at the Ibis Cannes Centre before checking in.

I reward myself with a €2.40 (£2.02) pain au chocolat on my way to the Palais for a press conference with Paul Mescal.

After asking a question about his new film The History of Sound which goes viral, I plunge into work, only surfacing for lunch just before 4pm.

This is one of those panini stand days, all I had time for, so another €7 (£5.89) down as I treat myself to a fancy ham with cheese and tomato. I still walk back to score my free canned drink, though.

But here is where the wheels start to fall off.

After heading back to the hotel, I find myself persuaded into a patisserie for an evening drink and éclair – powering up for some more work – ahead of dinner.

This ends up happening after 10pm, and as I’m now in an unfamiliar part of Cannes, I just want somewhere open that looks good. That results in a €24 (£20.20) spaghetti alle vongole accompanied by an €8 (£6.73) glass of prosecco at Da Tina 33 Cannes.

Total spend = €46.40 (£39.06). Regrets = zero.

The offending but delicious article (Picture: Tori Brazier)

Can you Cannes, on the cheap?

Cannes is never going to be a cheap destination.

Its glamorous reputation precedes it, so my best advice is to spend that little bit of extra time walking further away from the Palais to seek out the best quality food and booze. Up Rue Saint-Antoine’s cobblestones further into Le Suquet is a good place to start.

A pizza from Tredici, for example, is worth stretching the budget for (from €14-32, £11.78-26.94) – and the best recommendations, from friends, are worth their weight in gold.

Hotel costs soar during the festival – up to six times their usual price, I’ve noted – so if you’re not interested in soaking up that cinematic atmosphere, steer clear and visit at another time of year.

But if you want to revel in the A-list atmosphere, where anyone can walk past you (I accidentally almost collided with Harrison Ford and Phoebe Waller-Bridge one year), book early – pre-Christmas.

And, of course, sniff out those €10 champagnes where you can.