What's the food culture in Cannes?

Cannes runs on Marché Forville time. The covered market on Rue du Marché opens at 7am Tuesday through Sunday, and by 7:30 the fish vendors are laying out rouget, loup de mer, and whatever the overnight boats pulled from the Lérins Channel. The smell of brine and wet stone fills the Forville hall before the coffee vendors even set up. Monday is a flea market, no food. Get there by 8 if you want the best socca from the vendor near the market's south entrance, where it comes off a copper pan the size of a car tire, blistered and peppery, 3 EUR a portion. By 10am the cheese stalls are offering aged tomme de montagne from the Mercantour hills, 45 minutes north. This market is where Cannes actually eats, not on La Croisette.

La Croisette is where you pay 26 EUR for a salade niçoise that arrives with iceberg lettuce and canned tuna. That is not a niçoise. Walk 4 blocks inland to Rue Meynadier, a pedestrian street that runs parallel, and the same city feels 40% cheaper. Fromagerie Ceneri at number 22 has been cutting comté and wrapping chèvre in chestnut leaves since the 1960s. The bakeries here sell fougasse, a Provençal flatbread slashed open and loaded with olives or lardons, for 3.50 EUR. Le Suquet, the old quarter that climbs the hill west of the Vieux Port, has restaurants that still cook for residents. Aux Bons Enfants on Rue Meynadier has no printed menu. The owner tells you what arrived at Forville that morning, and you eat that. Expect 20-30 EUR for a 2-course lunch with wine. Cash only.

The dishes that matter here are Niçois, not generically French. Socca is a chickpea-flour crêpe cooked in a wood-fired oven until the edges blacken and the center stays soft and slightly grainy. Pan bagnat is a round bread roll soaked in olive oil, filled with tuna, hard-boiled egg, olives, anchovies, tomato, and raw peppers. It should be heavy and dripping. If yours is dry, send it back. Pissaladière, an onion tart topped with anchovy fillets and small black Niçois olives, shows up at every bakery by 11am for about 4 EUR a slice. Farcis niçois are courgettes, tomatoes, and peppers hollowed out, stuffed with a pork-and-breadcrumb mixture, and baked until the tops crisp. You'll find them at the traiteurs around Forville for 8-12 EUR a portion, ready to eat warm or at room temperature. These are weekday lunches in Cannes, not restaurant dishes.

Dinner in Cannes starts at 8pm. Before 7:30, you're eating with other tourists. The port-side restaurants along Quai Saint-Pierre serve grilled fish and bouillabaisse for 25-45 EUR. The bouillabaisse here is lighter than Marseille's version, more brothy, with rouget and loup de mer instead of the heavier rascasse. Mind you, a proper bouillabaisse at a sit-down restaurant will likely run 40-55 EUR per person. For something less formal, the pizza places on Rue du Batéguier do thin-crust pissaladière-style pies with local toppings for 12-16 EUR. During the Film Festival in May, restaurant prices rise 30-50% and reservations at La Palme d'Or in the Hôtel Martinez need booking 2-3 weeks ahead. The rest of the year, Cannes is a city of 74,000 people, and walking into most restaurants at 8:15 on a Tuesday gets you a table.

Cannes sits between Nice, 30 minutes east by train for 6.20 EUR, and Grasse, 40 minutes north by bus 600. Both are better day-trip food destinations than anything along the Croisette hotel strip. Nice's Cours Saleya market is larger and louder than Forville. Grasse has a morning market on Place aux Aires where you'll find candied violets, orange-blossom water, and fougassette, a brioche-like bread flavored with orange blossom that costs 2.50 EUR and tastes the way the south of France smells. Back in Cannes, the late-night options are thin. After 10pm your best bet tends to be the kebab shops on Rue Jean Jaurès, where a shawarma plate runs 9-11 EUR. Most kitchens in the centre close by 10:30pm outside festival season.