Palais des Festivals et des Congrès

The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès sits as a bulky, concrete bunker draped in a red carpet that climbs the steps toward the main entrance. While it functions as a year-round convention center, the building exists because the city needed a permanent home for a film festival meant to challenge the Venice Biennale. In nineteen fifty-nine, actress Michèle Morgan stood on these very steps for the opening, officially launching a site that soon became the industry's most intense, high-stakes trade floor.