What's a good 3-day itinerary for Cannes?

Day 1 stays within central Cannes. Start at Marché Forville by 8:30am, when the stallholders are still stacking socca, chickpea flatbread baked on copper plates, about €3 a portion, and the smell of roasting peppers hangs in the covered hall. Walk south to La Croisette and turn left along the waterfront. The promenade runs 2 kilometres from the Palais des Festivals east toward the Palm Beach peninsula. Late June temperatures currently sit around 27°C with sticky humidity, so the morning shade along the hotel side of the boulevard is the comfortable option. By 11am, climb the 15-minute switchback through Le Suquet to the Musée de la Castre inside a medieval hilltop fortification. The views over the Vieux Port and Île Sainte-Marguerite are worth the sweat. Lunch at Aux Bons Enfants on Rue Meynadier. There is no printed menu. The kitchen cooks Provençal dishes from whatever arrived at Forville that morning, and you might pay €18-25 for a plat du jour. Cash only.

Day 2 belongs to Île Sainte-Marguerite, the larger of the two Lérins islands sitting 1.1 kilometres off the coast. Ferries leave from the Vieux Port quay roughly every 30 minutes starting at 9am. The crossing takes 15 minutes and costs about €16 return. Bring water and a packed lunch from Forville. The island has one overpriced café and nothing else. Fort Royal, where the Man in the Iron Mask was held from 1687 to 1698, is a 10-minute walk from the dock. The cell is small, the stone walls damp, the air noticeably cooler than the mainland. Pine and eucalyptus trails circle the island in a loop of about 8 kilometres, taking 2.5 hours at a relaxed pace. The south-facing coves have rocky swimming spots where the water is clear enough to see Posidonia seagrass 3 metres down. Return to Cannes by 4pm and spend the late afternoon on Plage du Midi, the free public beach west of the Vieux Port that locals prefer over the paid Croisette concessions at €25-40 per sunbed.

Day 3 shifts east to Antibes, 12 minutes by TER train from Cannes station. A one-way ticket costs €2.80. Walk from Antibes station through the 16th-century Vauban ramparts to the Picasso Museum, which opened in 1925 inside the Château Grimaldi. Picasso worked in the château for 6 months in 1946 and left 23 paintings and 44 drawings. The rooftop terrace looks straight out over the Mediterranean. Below the museum, the Marché Provençal on Cours Masséna runs every morning until 1pm. Tapenade vendors will usually let you taste before buying, and a 200g jar tends to run €6-8. For lunch, find a table on Place Nationale, where 3 or 4 restaurants serve €15-18 formules with Niçoise salad or grilled loup de mer. After eating, walk 20 minutes south along the coastal path toward Cap d'Antibes. The first section passes the old Antibes Cathedral and the Bastion Saint-André. You don't need the full 5-kilometre Sentier du Littoral. Turn back at Plage de la Garoupe, where the water runs warmer because the bay faces south. Catch the 5:30pm train back to Cannes.

Cannes is 3 kilometres end to end along the waterfront, and you can walk from the train station to the far end of La Croisette in 25 minutes. From Nice airport, the 210 express bus takes about 50 minutes and costs around €22. A taxi runs €70-90 on a fixed tariff. The TER from Nice Ville station is €6.80 and runs every 15-20 minutes. That said, the Croisette beach restaurants tend to charge €20-25 for a plat and €8 for a glass of rosé. Rue Meynadier and the streets behind Forville are where you eat for half that. Evening temperatures in late June still hover around 22-24°C, warm enough for outdoor dining without an extra layer. Sunset over the red Esterel mountains to the west lands around 9:15pm at this time of year, visible from anywhere along the western waterfront.