Antibes

As expected, I woke several times in the night, but I just went back to sleep. At 0800 I went down for breakfast. It had rained in the night so the day started off cloudy, but the sun emerged. I had a leisurely one hour breakfast in the hotel garden. There were the usual: bread rolls, cheese, butter, jams and honey. A cute tortoiseshell cat was wandering around; I should have brought my camera.


I walked to the Marché Forville and enjoyed looking at the fresh produce and colourful flowers. The shop windows were also richly stocked. Lots of Fifis and Fidos on leashes. What is it about the French and poodles?

The Gare SNCF was in a less salubrious part of town. It felt a bit seedy with more immigrant faces in evidence. Cannes is a lovely place if you have the money. Its topography is of a harbour backed by hills sloping down to sea so the railway line is on high ground. Hence the convoluted access road from the highway in the hills.

At Antibes I found not one but three markets: a shopping street with entertainers, a clothes market, and the Marché Provençal which featured a bounteous olive stall.

I bought a ficelle and walked to the Musee Picasso where I ate my lunch on the ramparts. I didn't view the collection, I seem to remember there were no items of interest to me. While I was eating a taxi pulled up and several Japanese alighted. Perhaps a special pilgrimage.

The beach was full of sunseekers.

I started on my planned walk, around the Cap d'Antibes, to Juan-les-Pins. Along the way I passed the harbour and marina, replete with pleasure craft.

The cape is an area of private residences and luxury hotels. They looked secluded and discreet.


Sometime during the walk I spotted graffiti urging respectez les skinedes. This was a play on respectez les pinèdes (pine forest, which gives Juan-les-Pins its name). Skinedes is of course the French rendition of skinheads.

The foreshore is rocky in many places. It reminded me of the Ligurian coast.


I had estimated about 1-½ hours for the 6 km or so around the cape. In the event it took me a couple of hours. At Juan-les-Pins I eschewed waiting for the bus and walked back to Antibes SNCF since it was only 1 km as the crow flies. I bought a cool drink from a vending machine, but the wretched thing swallowed my 10FF coin. The French are proud of their automation but not all of it works.

In Cannes, on Rue Meynardier, I bought a snack of a Provençale batard filled with cheese, tomatoes, basil, pepper, olive oil and a pinch of salt. It was accompanied by ½ kg of purple Provençal figs. Then I had my much anticipated cool dip in the hotel pool. Italian parents with a young boy and pubescent girl who I dubbed Lolita were enjoying the pool too. I dozed off to the noise of Lolita and her brother splashing each other.


In the evening I walked to Palm Beach Casino and back along La Croisette. The esplanade was given over to skaters and rollerbladers. Each hotel on the waterfront has its own section of the beach. These windsurfers were taking advantage of the evening breezes.

2000, time to dine. Au Bec Fin and Le Lion d'Or, two recommended restaurants, were closed for Saturday. In the end I settled for a pizza from the prix fixe menu at the Cafe d'Antibes, with a Belgian Jupiter beer. Nothing special but filling. Then I called it a night as I had to be up to catch the bus to the tutorials the next day, yes, Sunday.