Several years ago (i.e., before 3.20.12) my Cannes Film Festival nights sometimes ended with a visit to Le Petit Carlton and, more recently, Le Petit Majestic. Semi-rowdy street parties, I mean, that were fed by two smallish corner bars. I never stayed too late, but I’ve heard that these congregations would go until 2 am and beyond. I don’t know what I could’ve been thinking, knowing I had to get up around 6:30 am in order to attend the regular 8:30 am screening, but every so often I would drop by for a glass or two regardless.

I’m talking roughly ’05 to ’11, when I was a bit younger and a little more rough and ready.

The morning wake-ups weren’t too bad, and if I got up early enough I used to adore inhaling a double cappuccino at La Crillon (4 Rue Jean de Riouffe, 06400 Cannes) before the 8:30 am screening. During my pink pass days I had to be in line by 8 am, remember, so I had to hit La Crillon by 7:45 or thereabouts. That heavenly feeling of being caffeine-throttled as I walked up the red-carpet staircase and found my seat (right-front orchestra, near where Toronto Star critic Peter Howell always sat) and the purring voice of that British-accented hostess (“Ladies and gentlemen, the screening is about to begin…please turn off your mobile telephones”) and the lights going down…such an immaculate sooth.