How long does it take to visit Le Suquet?

One hour is enough for the climb, the tower and the view from the church forecourt. Allow two hours if you add the Forville market first thing and the descent along Quai Saint-Pierre. The museum in the former castle takes another thirty minutes or so.

What days and hours is the Forville market open?

From September to June, Tuesday to Sunday, 7am to 1pm; in July and August, every day at the same hours. On Mondays the hall hosts a flea and antiques market from 8am to 4pm instead of the growers. The market is fully covered, which makes it workable in any weather.

Is the climb up Le Suquet difficult?

It is short but genuinely steep, with flights of steps. Around ten minutes from the port for an ordinary walker. It is not, however, a comfortable route with a pushchair, and the cobbles are slippery after rain. Shoes that grip change everything.

Where can you eat in the quarter without overspending?

Quai Saint-Pierre is the most visible row and not always the most interesting. The best rating-to-price ratios in our survey are one or two streets back, where the cooking has to do the work instead of the view. Expect 20 to 30 euros in those streets, against 30 to 50 for a good Provençal table in the centre.

Is Le Suquet worth it out of season?

Yes, and it is the quarter that stands up best to a Cannes winter. The market runs all year, the climb and the view depend on no season, and the crowds drop away. Only the quayside restaurants scale back, with more frequent weekly closures than in summer.

Le Suquet and the Old Port of Cannes: a guide to the quarter

There are two Cannes, three hundred metres apart. East of the Old Port, La Croisette with its grand hotels and concession beaches. West, a hill of steep lanes that already carried a village when the boulevard was still a shoreline track. That hill is called Le Suquet, and it is the oldest part of the town.

Between the two sit the Old Port and the market. This is where the town works: the boats, the stalls, the kitchens. A visitor who stays on the seafront sees none of it, and leaves with the idea that Cannes is expensive. It is, along two kilometres. It is not, in the streets that climb.

This walk takes two hours on foot, market included, and it costs nothing beyond what you decide to buy. Here is the order we would do it in.

The walk, in order

N° 01

The market · first

Forville, covered, and closed on Mondays for a good reason

The Forville market is the logical starting point, because it opens early and shuts in the early afternoon. It is fully covered, which matters in July as much as in January, and it occupies two sites, the hall on rue du marché Forville and the one on the Allées de la Liberté. The hours we recorded: Tuesday to Sunday, 7am to 1pm from September to June, and every day in July and August. On Mondays the growers give way to an antiques and flea market, 8am to 4pm: that is not a closure, it is a different market, and plenty of visitors discover it by accident. At 4.4 across more than 8,000 Google reviews, it is also the highest rated address in our whole Cannes survey.

N° 02

The climb

The lanes, the tower, and the view that justifies the effort

From the market, you go up. The lanes of Le Suquet are narrow, cobbled and broken by flights of steps: it is not long, about ten minutes to the top, but it genuinely climbs. At the summit the square tower of Mont Chevalier commands the bay; it was built by the monks of Lérins, and it is the oldest visible thing in town. Beside it, the former castle of the Lérins abbots houses the museum long known as the Musée de la Castre, today the Musée des Explorations du Monde. And above all there is the view: the port below, La Croisette in profile, the islands opposite. It is the best photograph of Cannes, and it is free.

N° 03

The church

Notre-Dame d'Espérance, late gothic above the port

On the same esplanade, the church of Notre-Dame d'Espérance closes the top of Le Suquet. Its architecture belongs to late Provençal gothic, in a region that built very little in that style, which makes it unusual. The visit is short and the interior plain. What earns the detour is the position: from the forecourt you understand in a minute why a village settled here rather than at the water's edge. A hill can be defended, a beach cannot.

N° 04

The way down

Quai Saint-Pierre, the row that faces the boats

You come back down along Quai Saint-Pierre, the line of restaurants facing the boats in the Old Port. It is the most obvious and the most uneven spot in Cannes: the position is spectacular, the menus resemble each other, and value varies a great deal from one door to the next. Two markers from our notebook: <a href="/restaurants/astoux-et-brun/">Astoux et Brun</a>, the seafood reference of the centre at 4.5 across more than 2,600 reviews, and <a href="/restaurants/assiette-provencale/">L'Assiette Provençale</a>, 4.6 across nearly 1,200 reviews in a 30 to 50 euro bracket. A practical detail that surprises people: kitchens close between services, and Sunday evening barely exists.

N° 05

Three formats

One hour, two hours, an evening

In one hour, do the climb and the view, skipping the museum: that is the format with the best return on time. In two hours, add the market first thing in the morning and the descent along the quay. For an evening, reverse it: climb at the end of the day when the light rakes across the bay, come down to eat on the quay or in a street set back from it. In all three cases, wear proper shoes. The steps of Le Suquet are real, and smooth soles are a poor idea in damp weather.

The three mistakes on this route

What we avoid: climbing Le Suquet in the middle of a July afternoon. Part of the route faces due south, the slope is continuous, and there is little shelter before the top. Early morning or the end of the day are far more pleasant, and the light is better.

What we also avoid: treating Quai Saint-Pierre as a single address. It is a row, not a restaurant, and the gap between two neighbours can be considerable. Reading the posted menu and looking at how full the room is at the start of service remains the best indicator available.

Finally, we do not turn up at the Forville market on a Monday expecting growers' stalls. Monday is flea market day. It is interesting, but it is not what you came for if you wanted tomatoes.

What time, and what season

The best window. Between 8 and 10 in the morning the market is at full tilt, the hill is cool and empty, and the town still belongs to the people who live in it. It is also the only time you can photograph the lanes with nobody in them. At the end of the day the light is better but the market is shut: you have to choose, or come twice.

Out of season. Le Suquet is one of the few quarters of Cannes that loses nothing in November or February. The quay restaurants scale back and some close part of the week, but the market, the climb and the view work exactly the same. If you come to Cannes outside summer, this is the quarter that holds the trip together.

Le Suquet and the Old Port: the Cannes before La Croisette.

Two Cannes, three hundred metres apart