Selling Hats - Paul Conneally, Cannes, 2014

'Selling Hats'

Paul Conneally

Cannes 2014

'Prophylactic' - Paul Conneally - Cannes - 2016

'PROPHYLACTIC'
Paul Conneally
Cannes 2016

You can find 'PROHYLACTIC' a found splacist artwork by Paul Conneally in the old port of Cannes:

A Towel and Trunks

early morning sun
he stakes his place on the rocks
a towel and trunks

Little Onion

Photograph: Paul Conneally, Cannes, 2016

Cannes From The Hip 'On Your Bike'

'On Your Bike!'
Cannes From The Hip

This older lady doesn't want the bother of weaving in and out of the people walking La Croisette and chooses instead to take her chances with the automobiles and motorbikes along the boulevard itself. Even in the mid-summer heat she manages to maintain a certain style one that comes with confidence and a sense of purpose.

Paul Conneally
Cannes 2016

Cannes From The Hip 'Seated One'

Cannes From the Hip 
'Seated One'
Paul Conneally
Cannes 2016

Wish You Were Here

The public beaches in Cannes are truly egalitarian.

Everyone is welcome no matter their age, gender, race, sexuality, or body shape.

People have been coming to La Plage for generations and save for a few changes in fashion and technology the scene today is probably very similar to that of fifty years ago.

sand between her toes
she writes for the tenth time
'wish you were here'

Little Onion

UPDATE: The decision of the Mayor of Cannes to institute and enforce a 'BURKINI BAN' on the beaches of Cannes makes the idea of them being egalitarian redundant. Terrible decision!

Photograph: Paul Conneally, Cannes Plage, August 2016

Early Evening Cannes Beach

In the early evening, families, groups of friends and couples gather on the public beaches of Cannes. Some bring food and drink others just take time out from walking La Croisette. Children build sandcastles and eat ice-creams.

Paul Conneally
Cannes 2016

Amphitrite - Cannes Port Pierre Canto

Amphitrite stands at the entrance to the Porte Pierre Canto in Cannes. She is a statue by the sculptor Amaryllis Bataille and was installed in the year 2,000 to mark the new millennium.

Amphitrite was an Ancient Greek sea-goddess and wife of Poseidon.

She was seen as less the wife of but the consort of Poseidon, becoming a symbolic representation of the sea.

She is mentioned by Homer in The Odyssey: "moaning Amphitrite" nourishes fishes "in numbers past all counting" (Odyssey xii.119).

Standing 175 cm tall she welcomes sailors into Cannes' Port Pierre Canto and bids them good fortune when they leave to journey the Mediterranean and beyond.

To see her on foot you have to walk all the way out around the Port Canto from La Croisette past the many Super Yachts that berth there. In the height of summer it's a walk probably best done early morning or late afternoon to avoid the heat and rays of the midday sun.

Paul Conneally
August 1 2016
Cannes



Photographs: Paul Conneally 2016

The Eiffel Tower by Laurence Jenkell

The Eiffel Tower - Laurence Jenkell

Candy shaped building block sculpture outside the Grand Hotel, Cannes.

Paul Conneally
July 2016
Cannes

Five Hundred Yards

An elderly couple sits down in the shade for a while.

They take the weight off their feet and watch the world go by.

His leg gently rests against her knee.

Years ago they walked La Croisette a small hand each between them.

A little girl lifted and swung every ten steps along the way.

Just ten minutes sat here and off again.

five hundred yards
of bonjours
an espresso
at Bar 72
and then home

Little Onion

Photograph: Paul Conneally, Cannes, 2016

Kiosk LE 8 La Croisette - Cannes - France

The promenader on La Croisette in Cannes is prone to get hot, thirsty and sometimes even hungry as one walks, jogs, skates or cycles up and down this most famous of seafronts.

It's a good job then that there is a series of food and drink kiosks along its length and beyond right around to the public beaches of Cannes La Bocca. Each kiosk is numbered which is useful for meeting up with others or as an aide memoire to where you parked your car.

Kiosk Le 8 is situated near the merry-go-round at the Palais des Festivals end of La Croisette.

It's hard to resist something cold and sweet on a hot French Riviera summer's day:

the ice-cream seller
points out the way to me
with an ice-cream

Little Onion

Photograph and text: Paul Conneally 2016

Early Morning Bathers - Cannes 2016

Between around 7.30 and 10 in the morning is primetime for bathers, many of them middle to old age, on the public beaches of Cannes. It's fairly quiet at this time and the sun is warm without being burning hot. They come without ceremony and if getting changed do so under a handheld towel. Grandfathers and Grandmothers sometimes with their grandchildren but most often alone wading out into the warm shallows and beyond. And then it's up on to La Croisette for a coffee before a visit to the bakery for the first baguette buy of the day.

morning shadows
a swim first he thinks
then home for a shave

Little Onion


Photographs: Paul Conneally, Cannes, 2016

Candy Sculpture No. 2980 by Laurence Jenkell 2015

Laurence Jenkell's large candy sculptures have been a feature around Cannes, especially along La Croisette, for a few years now. The artist has had an obsession with the 'candy' form making many many variations on the same shape. She works from a studio in Vallouris, which is just outside Cannes and which plays host to many other artists too.

I like Jenkell's candy sculptures and don't tire of them but this presentation in the gardens of the Grand Hotel in Cannes is for me blighted by the over large text plaque featuring the artist's name and the contact for her gallery / agent. But then again this is Cannes.

Paul Conneally
Cannes
July 2016

Short Shadows

a granita before
the afternoon shift
short shadows

Paul Conneally
Cannes 2015

Headache

headache
the scent of something
on the sea breeze

Paul Conneally
Cannes 2015

View Over The Bay Of Cannes

View Over The Bay Of Cannes
Paul Conneally
August 2015

Three Break Ups

three break ups
another hot day
in the nail bar

Paul Conneally
Cannes 2015

The Ice-cream Seller

the ice-cream seller
points out the way to me
with an ice-cream

Paul Conneally

Sweat Stained Shirt

Some men perhaps enjoy shopping for women's clothes with their wife or partner. Most don't.

We do it anyway, grudgingly, looking for an excuse to get out of the shop and wait outside or in some nearby café or better still a pub.

In Cannes there are so many clothes shops to visit and it's so hot that it's worth going in just for the air conditioning. After a while most of the men will finish up outside leaning against walls, sitting on bollards, until their loved one appears perhaps with a bag of purchases or worse without, which means a visit to another shop.

the shop assistant
sips a glass of cold water
my sweat soaked shirt

Paul Conneally
Cannes 2015

A Night Of Fireworks

a night of fireworks
over the Bay of Cannes
the full moon

Paul Conneally
July 31 2015