Palais des Festivals et des Congrès

The Palais des Festivals is the beating heart of the Cannes Film Festival — the building where the red-carpet arrivals happen, where the Palme d'Or is awarded, and where industry deals worth billions are made in the corridors and screening rooms every May. For the other fifty weeks of the year it is a conference centre hosting everything from MIPIM (the world's largest real estate conference) to MIDEM (the music industry gathering).

The building itself is not architecturally distinguished — a brutalist slab by the sea — but its cultural resonance is enormous. Outside, the famous escalier monumental (red-carpet staircase) can be walked by anyone; the handprint pavement of the Allée des Stars stretches along the front. Guided tours of the interior are available outside of event periods.

things to do sight
A story
The handprints of celebrities are embedded in the pavement outside the Palais — a Walk of Fame that began in 1981 with the prints of Roman Polanski and Isabelle Adjani. At last count there were over 300 pairs of handprints, each cast in the concrete during the Cannes Film Festival. Sophia Loren, Clint Eastwood, Scarlett Johansson, and Jean-Paul Belmondo are all here, pressed into the same sidewalk.