Bonsoir mes amours!
what a fucking day it has been. where to start? i suppose the beginning.. 8:30 am breakfast with my crew of boys, all of whom headed off to the festival while I stayed to accomplish some quick laundry - nope - and catch the shuttle in right behind them - nuh-uh - France, like Italy, is full of lies.
"tell me liiiies tell me sweet little lies" ..
My Cannes Film Festival sponsor T.C. of TomCat Films mentioned that the motto of France is, "Oh, you assumed so? No." For example, when I went to do laundry and headed to the front desk to break a 20 euro bill - just a 20, not like, a fifty or a hundred or something *crazy* just a damn 20 so that I could do 9 euros worth of laundry - they informed me that sorry, we don't have change; ask the restaurant. So I go to the restaurant (literally right next to the counter) and they say - sorry, we don't have any change, ask the front desk.
This was the start of my day.
Seriously, how do you run a business without 20 euros worth of change?? < --- I yelled and laughed and yell/laughed into the weird trees and the strong, bitter wind outside of the lobby on my way back to our room - a walk I made roughly 13 times this morning.
It's a long, boring story, but I did end up taking my laptop into the laundry room for the roughly 2 1/2 hours, and 8 french people, that it took to accomplish doing one single load of laundry. Happy ending to this story - I'm currently wearing clean socks and jammies after a very, very, very long day. It feels amazing.
But that beautifully explains my entire french experience thus far! I think the front desk was so so sick of me by the time I headed up to ask for the shuttle, roughly around 3pm after they all got back from their nap hour or whatever, that they just said no. No there is no shuttle that has existed for 20 years and that T.C. claims is still totally listed on the check in papers as available every half hour. But here is a bus schedule and here is a map and here is some incorrect directions and au revoir!!
It took me roughly two hours to get the 20 minutes from this hotel into Cannes.
But oh, what a beautiful, scenic, and unique two hours it was. And I got to wonder around the tiny city, in the hot ass sun and the bitter ass wind, and RETRIEVED MY NEW DEBIT CARD from last night's restaurant and even made a beautiful new friend there. It is these random connections that I am truly trying to dive into, as they have all been just so damn sincere.
It took some decompressing a bit, but I got to enjoy the city. I shared graciously on instagram, facebook, twitter, and even got a couple of periscope videos to work(!!), plus some promotional stuff for TomCat as per our arrangement; I also walked the red carpet right before George Clooney and Juila Roberts did; I ate almost an entire pizza to myself along |  Follow @TheJinNTonic on Persicope for live videos and chat! <3 |
with a french cappucinno and a german cigarette; and I had about seven glasses of delicious, free champagne at the official VIP party on the beach that I tooootally wasn't invited to (I love crashing a good party) - all while looking a hot ass mess, in my travel boots, with my hair looking like the fucking Heath Ledger version of the joker, what with the wind and all the seriousness and such.
How every meal begins in France - I have never, ever, not ever liked green olives. Never. I even gave them another try in San Fran right before flying out and nope - still wasn't a fan. And you know what? Now? Holy fuck I can't get enough of them SOMEONE BRING ME GREEN OLIVES!!
So of course it's been an odd and beautiful and odd and beautiful and exhausting and odd and beautiful day. As with all of my travel thus far, it is very clear that one full day at the Cannes Film Festival is NOT enough, and I'm looking forward to next year coming legitimately for the full week and working alongside TomCat and also, working hard as I do every day to build up the JNT army! It has been a fun experience being here along with all the new people I've met, but I am looking forward to returning to traveling solo in morning. My train leaves in 6 1/2 hours.
bonne nuit,
XoXo
JNT
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