Before the start of his summer tour in support of My Dear Melancholy, Abel Tesfaye wanted a few weekends to himself. The notoriously reclusive pop singer, known for his contributions to the 50 Shades of Grey and Black Panther soundtracks and a catalogue of music videos that draw inspiration from Scorsese and French New Wave, is also an unabashed cineaste. Which is why, a few weeks ago, he jetted off to the Cannes Film Festival with a few friends, for some low profile moviegoing.

"I watched all French films on my way to Cannes,” Tesfaye says, starting with Gaspar Noe’s Irreversible. “Whenever I travel to a foreign country I make a point to watch films from there."

Such escape is a rare treat for a camera-shy artist whose silhouette is instantly recognizable. "It's been a while since I've gone incognito," he says. "I usually rent out an entire cinema to enjoy a film; I can't recall the last time I could watch a movie in public, especially with my previous hairstyle." So despite being seated alongside the festival jury at the Grand Theatre Lumiere—sharing an armrest with Benicio del Toro was a personal highlight, he says—lounging out of sight in the back rows transported Tesfaye to the anonymity of his Toronto youth.

"Most people probably wouldn't come to the Cannes film festival as their first resort," says Tesfaye, "but I wanted to watch as many films as possible—to take a break from being a performer and just be a fan."

While he posted up at a secluded 20-bedroom hillside villa, with a panoramic balcony over the Promenade de la Croisette. "That first night I threw a house party. I invited Gaspar Noe after being swept away by his film, Climax. We danced to the soundtrack all night,” Tesfaye says. He also made plenty of discoveries across the Cote d’Azur: "My favorite restaurant was Mamo le Michelangelo [in Juan-Les-Pins]," he says, thanks as much to its truffle heavy Italian fare as its eclectic dining room that had "Reservoir Dogs vibes"—which prompted Tesfaye to dress the part in a black Dior suit for his lunch with BlacKkKlansman director Spike Lee. "I felt like I was Mr. Blonde!" He also found refuge from paparazzi by dining at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, where he found solace in never being the biggest name on deck at the Eden-Roc Grill, tucking into spiny lobster while ducked under a sun umbrella and Chrome Hearts baseball cap. "Another highlight was truffle and lobster pasta at this 25-seat Sardinian restaurant where the chef and his wife made the food and then served it personally to our table," he says of a hideaway in Le Susquet, Cannes' old town—the name of which he unfortunately lost track of in the rush of the festival.

The Weeknd, above the Croisette. Photo by Reza Fahim

Before the festival's close, Tesfaye sneaked off to Paris where his first stop was artist André Saraiva's darkly glam Hotel Amour near Pigalle. "The vibe is unreal," Tesfaye says, calling the property’s cloistered courtyard "transcendental." And while he still makes an annual pilgrimage to party at L'Arc Paris, the raucous club outfitted by rocker Lenny Kravitz's design studio, the recently opened Hotel Bourbon has fast become his new after-hours favorite. A self-described "house for insomniacs," it’s heavy on disco-era tawdriness in small parlors hidden behind the bar's velvet curtain.

Tesfaye checked in at Hotel de Pourtales, the celebrity favorite in the eighth arrondissement that’s probably best known as the "No Address Hotel" where Kim Kardashian was robbed two years ago. Before continuing his holiday in the U.K., he put on his own late-night film festival, projecting movies—like the Safdie Brothers' Good Time—on the wall into the wee hours.

"I've always escaped with film,” Tesfaye says. “Whether on tour or on a train ride to London, I always have films loaded and ready to watch. For me film isn't an escape, it's a constant."