Across the bay from Cannes, the Lérins Islands are the most interesting excursion from the port. Ferryboats depart at 30-minute intervals throughout the day, from 7:30am to sundown. The largest of the ferryboat companies is Compagnies Estérel-Chanteclair (tel. 04-93-39-11-82), but other contenders include Cie Horizon 4 (tel. 04-93-99-15-09); Compagnie Maritime Cannoise (tel. 04-93-38-66-33); and Trans-Côte d'Azur (tel. 04-92-98-71-30). Departures are from the Gare Maritime des Îles, 06400 Cannes. Round-trip passage costs 8.35€ per person.
Ile Ste-Marguerite -- The first island is named after St. Honorat's sister, Ste. Marguerite, who lived here with a group of nuns in the 5th century. Today it is a youth center whose members (when they aren't sailing and diving) are dedicated to the restoration of the fort. From the dock where the boat lands, you can stroll along the island (signs point the way) to the Fort de l'Ile, built by Spanish troops from 1635 to 1637. Below the hill is the 1st-century B.C. Roman town where the unlucky man immortalized in The Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned.
One of French history's most perplexing mysteries is the identity of the man who allegedly wore the masque du fer, a prisoner of Louis XIV who arrived at Ste-Marguerite in 1698. Dumas popularized the legend that he was a brother of Louis XIV, and it has even been suggested that the prisoner and a mysterious woman had a son who went to Corsica and "founded" the Bonaparte family. However, the most common theory is that the prisoner was a servant of the superintendent, Fouquet, named Eustache Dauger. He might have earned his fate by aiding Fouquet in embezzling the king's treasury. At any rate, he died in the Bastille in Paris in 1703.
You can visit his cell at Ste-Marguerite, where it seems that every visitor has written his or her name. As you stand listening to the sound of the sea, you realize what a forlorn outpost this was.
Musée de la Mer, Fort Royal (tel. 04-93-38-55-26), traces the history of the island, displaying artifacts of Ligurian, Roman, and Arab civilizations, plus the remains discovered by excavations, including paintings, mosaics, and ceramics. It's open Wednesday through Monday July through September from 10:30am to 12:15pm and 2:15 to 6:30pm; October through June, it closes at sundown (4:30-5:30pm). Admission is 2€ for adults and free for students and youth ages 17 and under.
Ile St-Honorat -- Only a mile long, but richer in history than any of its sibling islands, the Ile St-Honorat is the site of a working monastery whose origins go back to the 5th century. Today the Abbaye de St-Honorat, les Iles de Lérins, 06400 Cannes (tel. 04-92-99-54-00), boasts a combination of medieval ruins and early-20th-century ecclesiastical buildings, inhabited by a permanent community of about 30 Cistercian monks. If space is available, outsiders can visit, for prayer and meditation only, and spend the night. However, most visitors come to wander through the pine forests on the island's western side and sun themselves on its beaches.
