My wife and I have long wanted to go to Antibes on the French Riviera. I ‘m not quite sure why but I think it might be because a former co-worker of my wife had apartments there and had a lot of good things to say about that city. Now we were going to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and wanted to travel somewhere and then the destination was obvious.
We went there in the middle of September which turned out to be a good time of year to go there. Not too many people, pleasant weather and still warm in the sea. We only had three days but we managed to do a lot in those days, both to experience the city but also to go to a couple of other places nearby.
Antibes has a well-preserved old town centre partially surrounded by a high wall where you have a very nice view of the sea. This part of Antibes has a lot of restaurants, cafes and attractions and even though the high season was over there were a lot of people in motion. One attraction was a large, covered marketplace where in daytime it was full of mostly fruit and vegetable stands but also meat and other local products were for sale. It is definitely worth a visit!
In the evenings the old town was filled with lights and a nice atmosphere and there were plenty of restaurants to choose from for a good dinner. Walking up on the wall was very nice, especially in the evenings with the warm sea breezes and the nicely lit buildings. It was perfect to stroll there for a while after dinner before heading back to the hotel.
Our plan was to spend the first day walking around Cap Antibes, the peninsula that stretches out into the sea, and then go sunbathing and swimming but due to a slight change in the weather we decided to take the train east instead. We had received a tip that Menton, which is just inside the border with Italy, was worth visiting so we went there. When we arrived, at first we didn’t think it was that special but after walking a bit along the beach we arrived at the pier and from there we could look in towards Menton from the sea and see how beautiful it actually was. The old part of Menton is on a small hill with colorful houses and a pretty church. Up at the top of the hill was an old, beautiful stone cemetery which we made our way up to along narrow, cozy alleys.
On the way back from Menton we got off in Nice. We had been there once before but then only on the famous beach promenade and the old quarters nearby. Now when we walked from the train station down towards the beach promenade, we had the chance to see more of this lovely summer town. Nice is a quite large city so of course there where a lot to see and experience, but this time we only made an afternoon visit.
The next day it was time to explore Cap Antibes. This peninsula stretches a few kilometres out into the sea and here are lots of villas of different classes and sizes. As the road we walked on went along the beach, the houses we saw had fantastic locations with wonderful views of the sea, one house nicer than the other. However, this was nothing compared to the houses that was at the far end of the peninsula. When we got close to the beach known as Billionaire beach it was not difficult to understand why. Huge plots with walls and gates spread out in the neighbourhood and when we got down to the beach we could see some of these villas with almost unreal locations by the water!
In the area there were nice hiking trails that we explored to some extent but when we started to get thirsty and a little tired of all the hiking we went up along the other side of the peninsula and got to the beaches at Juan les Pins. Here we spent the rest of the day sunbathing and swimming in the 25-degree (Centigrade) sea but first we ate a good pizza in one of the nice restaurants near the beach. Juan les Pins is a town that has grown together with Antibes and has more of a character of a classic vacation resort with more beaches and hotels than its sister town.
The last day of our trip we spent partly on the beach and partly strolling around Antibes. Inside the city wall we found some very cozy quarters with beautiful alleys with flowers and lovely stone facades. We also walked around Antibes’ famous marina, Port Vauban, which is one of the largest in the Mediterranean and admired at all the boats that were there, everything from simple small boats to large luxury yachts. Overall, both my wife and I were very happy with our trip. We got to see a lot, experience beautiful nature and nice environments and we had very good food to eat. We became very fond of the city and the Riviera in general and have already started talking about going back next summer for another visit, this time hopefully in the company of our children.
