Hey Big Spender! This coming January, your credit cards will get quite the workout when Cannes kicks off a seasonal winter sale like no other
Exciting news for all self-confessed Louboutin and Givenchy junkies (yes, Carrie Bradshaw, we’re looking at you!) and all those that are in the market for a discount Bentley… but also for regular folks like you and us: Cannes has just gifted us with a newly instituted January shopping festival, aptly named Sales And The City. The most glamorous Shop Till You Drop destination on the French Riviera, barring Monaco, has announced that on the weekend of January 11 – 13, 2019, it will host a wide variety of events – fashion shows, animations, music, games, and surprise visitor specials – to turn your bargain hunt into an unforgettable experience. Even the venerable Crazy Horse cabaret is temporarily leaving its chilly Paris home for quick dash to the wintery sun of Cannes to provide some much needed R&R between shopping crusades.
If this kind of merriment sounds out of your financial league, you needn’t worry. Other than the global brand boutiques that adorn the “Banane”, as downtown Cannes around the Croisette is called, there are plenty of great deals for you as well. More than 350 shops will be participating and many of them will exceptionally open on Sunday, 13 January, and local bars, cafés and restaurants are on standby to tend to hungry stomachs and sore soles.
The programme kicks off on Friday, 11 January with a breakfast, not at Tiffany’s, but at the Nespresso boutique, what else? (Sorry, folks, last we heard is that George Clooney cannot make it!) On the same afternoon, and on Saturday, 12 January, rue d’Antibes and rue des Serbes turn into catwalks where Fashion Glam Couture and other designers and design schools present current trends and styles. Both nights also feature the Crazy Horse Paris “Forever Crazy” show at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès (Théâtre Debussy), and a cocktail at the Gray d’Albion Hotel helps shorten the wait on Friday.
It is not like the shops and boutiques of Cannes needed help in clearing out their basements. The clientele is there year round, wallet in hand. Rather, this is part of yet another initiative of the City of Cannes under its mayor David Lisnard to make the town viable year-round for its residents and city-break visitors. To this end, substantial financial means have been earmarked to invigorate local economy outside the Festival de Cannes and a number of high-calibre tradeshows.
For this particular event, the city has put into place partnerships with hotels and airlines, notably EasyJet, to offer attractive weekend destination packages for this and other notable events. A group of international influencers and fashion/lifestyle/travel bloggers is also invited to get the first-hand Cannes experience. A variety of measures, from a pedestrianized shopping mile to free downtown parking, extended shopping hours and heightened security, will be put in place to ensure that the Cannois feel as much encouraged to participate in this event as any visitors.
We predict that the inaugural edition of Sales and the City will be tremendously successful. Carrie Bradshaw, alias Sarah Jessica Parker, if you read this … Cannes is open for business, and not just during the Red Carpet season!
Lead image by freestocks.org on Unsplash
Leave a Reply