Keep fit in Cannes

The summer twilight hours are the perfect opportunity to get to the beach and play some volleyball on the soft sand. The City of Cannes has set up five official beach volleyball courts that are open for public use between 15th of April through to the 15th of October, although you’ll also see people just pitching their own nets on a spare space of sand on the public beaches. There’s another beach volleyball court at the local sports centre, Le Centre Aquatique Grand Bleu.

The Mediterranean coastline at Cannes is gorgeous, but it sure is busy in the summer months, which can make lap swimming along the beach a bit of a nightmare. (Your stroke will often run foul of a group of uber-tanned ladies with perfectly coiffured hair doing gentle breaststroke and chatting with their designer sunglasses on.) If you take your swimming seriously, it may be better to head to one of Cannes’ great year-round swimming pools.

Le Centre Aquatique Grand Bleu has a 50m pool and a 25m pool, both outdoor and heated to 28 degrees year-round. There is also a paddling pool (open May to September), a beach volleyball court, and a park.

Piscine Montfleury is a 25m indoor pool which is heated to 28 degrees year round, as well as a casual pool, paddling pool, and solarium. The pool is within the fantastic Parc Montfleury leisure complex, which also has tennis courts and a park on the premises.

Assuming you’ve established how to count to 45 in French (or already have an English-speaking tennis partner), a game of tennis in the Mediterranean sunshine is a brilliant way to burn enough calories to justify your next holiday meal. There are two municipal tennis centres in the Cannes area.

Cannes Garden Tennis Club is a fantastic tennis centre with 16 lighted courts (6 clay, 10 synthetic resin), as well as a training wall, club house, children’s playground and free parking. There are lessons and tournaments hosted year-round.

Parc de Montfleury offers 7 tennis courts: 3 clay and 4 synthetic resin, of which 6 of them are lit courts. There are also lessons and competitions year round. 

Cannes has no shortage of fit people, so it’s no surprise there are several gyms and a whole host of private studios on offer to keep you trim and healthy! 

Fitlane is a French fitness chain, and is the biggest gym provider on the Cote d’Azur with 11 gyms in the region. There’s a Fitlane in Cannes, as well as ones in the nearby towns of Cannes le Bocca and Juan les Pins. Fitlane gyms cater for bodybuilding, cardio training, coaching, power plate lessons, and squash, and and offer the Zumba and LesMils group fitness classes. Fitlane does advertise on English sites, so they do cater to English speakers…to an extent. You’ll find personal trainers that speak English and you’ll be able to use all the facilities including the sauna and hamman, but there aren’t designated English speaking group fitness classes, so call ahead to find out if it will be suitable for your language level.

Soft Fitness is a bodybuilding gym with some classes. You can use the equipment here for 10 euro a session- or you can join in on one of the French-speaking group fitness classes, from Jazz dance to Pilates to street dancing. This place is less shiny than Fitlane, but more affordable and a bit more ‘real’. 

Fit & Fight Club is a boxing and fitness club in Cannes. There’s normal gym equipment, but also some great boxing classes, including Muay Thai. The instructor’s English is basic, but you can both probably get by. I could tell you more, but you know the rule about fightclub…

With the Tour de France fever gripping the entire country for three weeks every July, it's a well-known fact that the French are fond of road cycling. The roads of the Cote d'Azur offer some of the most beautiful and popular road cycling that the country has to offer. Whether you are a novice or a seasoned athlete, there are routes to suit every style and tempo of riding, from flat (..ish!) coastal routes to the cols and peaks of the Alpes Maritimes. The best part...you don't even need to bring your own bike with you as you can easily hire a road bike in Cannes for the day and take to the open roads for a bit of exercise.