La Croisette palms at first light

The Boulevard de la Croisette is two kilometres of palm-lined promenade between the Palais des Festivals and the Pointe Croisette, with hotel facades on one side and private beach clubs on the other. At midday it is a slow parade of shopping bags and traffic. At first light it is an avenue: palm trunks in rhythm down the pavement, the bay flat and pale, and the beach clubs still stacking their loungers.

The stretch opposite the Carlton is the one to work. The hotel's belle-époque facade and its two domes face the sea, the palms line up on both sides of the boulevard, and the jetties running out from the beach give you a straight line into the water for depth. Shoot along the pavement for the palm rhythm, down onto the sand for a low horizon, and out along a jetty for the couple alone against the bay.

Sunrise comes up over the Pointe Croisette and the Lérins islands to the east, so the light runs straight down the boulevard — clean, warm, no shadows from the hotels. That window lasts roughly an hour before the traffic and the beach staff arrive. Winter mornings are the sleeper: same light, empty street, and the Esterel across the bay often snow-dusted behind.

Practical: the beaches here are mostly private concessions, so use the public access strips or ask at the club rather than walking onto laid-out loungers. The boulevard is a real road with real traffic even early. And the sand is imported and raked daily — before about seven it is pristine, which is exactly why footprint-free frames are a morning-only proposition.