The free public beach in the middle of the Croisette, next to the Palais des Festivals. Renamed Plage Brigitte Bardot on 18 May 2026, still called Macé by regulars. What the official sources say about it, and what they leave out.
Plage Macé is the free public beach in the middle of the Croisette, on its western side, a few steps from the Palais des Festivals and next to the private Majestic beach. The first thing to know: that is no longer its official name. On 18 May 2026, during the Festival, the city renamed it Plage Brigitte Bardot, in tribute to the actress, who died on 28 December 2025. Regulars and search engines still say Macé, the signs and the tourist office say Bardot: it is the same sand.
The tourist office describes a fine-sand beach, framed by private beaches and supervised in high season. It also points to "Pages à la Plage", a self-service library run by the town hall: more than 3,000 titles from the city's media libraries, free to read on the spot. This is also the beach that hosts the giant screen of the Cinéma de la Plage during the Festival: in 2026, one free screening every evening at 9.30pm.
Our view: this is the most useful free beach in Cannes, not the most pleasant. You come for the location, not for the space. If room is what you want, our guide to the free public beaches of Cannes sends you west or out to the Pointe Croisette instead.
The tourist office gives the Gray d'Albion bus stop and the Palais car park, less than 450 metres away. On accessibility, the city lists a ramp for people with reduced mobility at kiosk 9b, one of six ramps placed under the watch of the municipal police. The fully equipped beach (bathing chairs, trained staff) remains the Handiplage at Bijou Plage, on the Pointe Croisette.
Dogs are not allowed here, even in winter: municipal by-law no. 24/4640 of 24 June 2024 allows dogs on the public beaches only from 1 November to 1 March, from 6 am to 9 am and from 6 pm to midnight, and it excludes three beaches by name, this one included (along with Favre Le Bret and Bijou Plage). The tourist office listing says otherwise (dogs allowed from 1 November to 1 May): we go with the by-law, detailed in our guide to dogs on Cannes beaches. The beach is not on the list of the 12 Cannes beaches awarded the Blue Flag in 2026. As for showers and toilets, neither the city nor the tourist office gives any detail specific to this beach: we won't invent them. The same caution applies to lifeguards: the sources say "high season", with no published dates or hours.
What we'd skip: turning up at noon in August and hoping for space. The beach is short and it is the only free beach on this stretch of the seafront. We'd also skip any plan to spend the night on the sand: in summer 2026, a municipal order banned access between midnight and 5am, from 13 May to 13 September, with a fine of up to 150 € (France 3, 18 June 2026).
We have made no on-site survey: treat this as a sourced notebook entry, closed in October 2026. Before going, we'd check with the city (switchboard 04 97 06 40 00) the lifeguard dates for the year, whether the night order is renewed, and, in May, the Cinéma de la Plage programme on the Festival website.