Cannes Film Festival

The Cannes Film Festival is one of the most glamorous film festivals in the world. Its winning price, La Palme D'or has been awarded to some of the best movies in the history of film making.

Usually held in the third week of May, its 60th anniversary took place in 2007. The whole city of Cannes, and usually all of the Riviera and the Provence are fully booked for these dates where most of the internationally acclaimed celebrities, form actors and actressess such as Al Pacino, Brad Pit, Adrien Brody, Penelope Cruz, and models such as Kate Moss or Claudia Schifer can be found at any wo of the typical landmark hotels in Cannes, The Negresco and the Martinez, both just steps away from the beach. All the statistics from past winners, members of the jury, and in general information related to the festival can be found at its official page.

Provided you are able to secure tickets for the viewings, anyone can drop by to see the latest premieres from major film makers such as Pedro Almodovar or Francisc Ford Coppola. The atmosphere is buzzing with lots of people and industry related professionals, and the ambience will take you back to the hey days of European film making and the italian Dolce far Niente, with boats swarming with paparazzis chasing the movie stars as they approach events by boat.

A date not to be missed!

Monaco F1 Grand Prix

On the third week of MAy every year, the Monegasque royal family presides over the celebration of the F1 Gran Prix, one of the most prestigious events in the international car racing calendar.

The pilots will swerve through the urban track (the oldest active one in F1 today) and fly past the harbour and its luxury yachts at more than 300 kilometers per hour while the lucky ones watch their evolutions from their yacht decks with a glass of champagne. The drivers will pilot 250 km in 78 turns to achieve victory.

The Grand Prix is usually attended by european crowned heads, the most iportant businessmen in the world and many of the most popular celebrities, sportsmen and movie stars of the world. The epithomy of glamour, its a date no to be missed by both, car racing aficionados and fans, nor anyone wanting to make a name for themselves in European society!

More information can be found at the F1 official site!

Rally of Monte Carlo

The Monte Carlo Rally (officially Rallye Automobile Monte-Carlo) is a rallying event organized each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco who also organizes the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and southeastFrance.

From its inception in 1911 by Prince Albert I, this rally, under difficult and demanding conditions, was an important means of testing the latest improvements and innovations to automobiles. Winning the rally gave the car a great deal of credibility and publicity. Since 1973, the race has been held in January as the first race of theFIA World Rally Championship, but for 2009 has joined the Intercontinental Rally Challenge (IRC) programme. As recently as 1991, competitors were able to choose their starting points from approximately five venues roughly equidistant from Monte Carlo (one of Monaco's administrative areas) itself. With often varying conditions at each starting point, typically comprising dry tarmac, wet tarmac, snow, and ice, sometimes all in a single stage of the rally. This places a big emphasis on tyre choices, as a driver has to balance the need for grip on ice and snow with the need for grip on dry tarmac. For the driver, this is often a difficult choice as the tyres that work well on snow and ice normally perform badly on dry tarmac.

This rally features one of the most famous special stages in the world. The stage is run from La Bollène to Sospel, or the other way around, over a steep and tight mountain road with many hairpin turns. On this route it passes over the Col de Turini, which normally has ice and/or snow on sections of it at that time of the year. Spectators also throw snow on the road — in 2005, Marcus Grönholm and Petter Solberg both ripped a wheel off their cars when they skidded on snow probably placed there by spectators, and crashed into a wall. Grönholm went on to finish fifth, but Solberg was forced to retire as the damage to his car was extensive.

The Turini is also driven at night, with thousand of fans watching the "Night of Turini", also known as the "Night of the Long Knives" due to the strong high beam lights cutting through the night

Bullfights in the South of France

Bullfights in France take place at the same time as in Spain, this is mainly in Spring. Major bullfights can be found in Arles, Nimes and Dax.

The Easter Feria, opens the French bullfighting season and attracts 500,000 visitors including the 50,000 aficionados, or bullfighting fans, who actually attend the corridas in the Roman arena. It is followed by the Rice Feria in September.
Each year, before the Feria, the “Espace Toro”, located at the Gimeaux corrals, presents the bulls used for the corrida and offers information about bullfighting traditions in the south of France. Usually two fights per day take place in the Arles arena, ranked in the 1st category among the three categories of arenas in France.

The different types of bullfight:

corridas de toros : animals between the ages of 4 and 6 years are fought by “matadors de toros”.

novilladas with picadors : animals younger than 3 years (novillos) are fought by “matadors de novillos”, assisted by picadors.

novilladas without picadors : animals between the ages of 2 and 3 years are fought by beginning bullfighters, without pricking.

corridas de rejones : animals younger than 6 years are fought by “rejoneadores de toros” or “de novillos” on horseback.

becerradas : animals between the ages of 18 and 24 months are fought, with or without killing, by professionals or by amateur aficionados.

The fight is governed by a president who insures that the bullfighting rules and regulations are respected. The paseo or parade is introduced by a trumpet call and all the participants are presented to the public. Then the bull surges out of the bull pen (“toril”) and is received by the torero with his cape, thus allowing him to judge the animal right from the beginning.

The fight can be divided into three parts or tercios :

tercio de pique : the picador, on his armor-covered horse, will test the courage of the bull by pricking him at the top of the “morillo”.

tercio de banderilles : banderillos (peones who assist the torero) place three pairs of banderillas on the withers to encourage the bull to attack. The matador may place the banderillas himself if he so desires.

tercio de combat ou muleta : this is the matador’s moment of truth. He must control the bull, harmonize his movement’s with his, and then deal the final “estoquade”.

The show is also everywhere in the streets of the old city. The aficionados (bullfighting fans) can continue their evening after the fight at one of the thirty “bodegas” over a glass of sangria. Penas (bands of musicians) add to the festivities around the arena and through the city streets