The red-carpet steps of the Palais des Festivals

The Marches, the flight of steps up to the main entrance of the Palais des Festivals, are the single most recognisable staircase in cinema. The red carpet is not always out, but for much of the year it is, and the steps themselves — wide, shallow, symmetrical, with the Palais facade above and the Croisette behind you — make an unusually generous stage for a couple.

What works here is the theatre of it. Shoot from the bottom of the steps to put the couple high and small against the facade, from halfway for the classic turn-and-look-back, and from the top looking down to get the Vieux Port and the bay behind them. The Allée des Étoiles handprints along the pavement below give a playful second scene without moving fifty metres.

Morning is the practical answer: the light comes over the bay onto the facade, the square is quiet, and the carpet is clean. By afternoon the steps are in their own shadow and busy with visitors doing exactly what you are doing. Evening lights the facade artificially and works well at blue hour.

One big caveat and one small one. During the film festival in May, and around the other congresses that fill the Palais year-round, the steps are closed, secured or in use — check the Palais calendar before building a session around them, because when it is on, this location simply is not available. And the carpet is a working surface: shoes off it if they are dirty, and no gear laid down on it.