Antibes Travel Diary
Antibes is a super cozy, smallish and easily walkable town with cute shops, sandy beaches, amazing views, and LOTS of yachts, The Port Vauban Marina is the largest yachting harbor in Europe and there’s everything from “smaller” luxury yachts to gigantic mega-yachts with helicopters on board. If you like yacht-spotting, Antibes is a must!
I absolutely loved Antibes and went back several times during my 2-month stay on the Riviera. It’s an easy 35-minute train ride from Villefranche-sur-Mer (25 minutes from Nice), and the train runs along the sea for a lot of the trip, so the views are nice too.
On my first visit, I went to meet up with our friends and former neighbors from Cambridge (Massachusetts) who have a place in Theoule-sur-Mer and happened to be there for a few weeks. Back in the day when I worked at the Harvard art museums, our dog Sadie used to stay with them while I was at work. They were self-employed and worked from home and wanted their dog, Duncan, to have some canine company, so it was perfect for everyone. I walked to work and they lived on the way, so I used to drop Sadie off in the morning and pick her up on my way home at night. And spent many evenings hanging out on their front steps, chatting while the dogs played. They had moved to Florida several years earlier and I hadn’t seen them for quite a while at that point, so it was a really special treat to get together.
We started our afternoon with a long lunch catching up over delicious food and rosé at a cozy restaurant in old town.
After lunch, we went down to the harbor and spent hours walking around looking at yachts, chatting about this and that. The afternoon turned uncharacteristically gloomy and chilly for May, with drizzle on and off, but Antibes was still beautiful, and oh, those soft, muted colors… Sometimes I prefer overcast over bright blue skies.
The Prettiest Travel Guide to the French Riviera
Before I left the US, I bought the prettiest French Riviera travel guide: “Travels through the French Riviera” by Virginia Johnson. It has lots of great information and tips, and is illustrated with her adorable watercolor paintings throughout. It’s hardcover, and makes a great coffee table book, or gift for a Francophile friend.
Second visit to Antibes
The next time I visited, it was just me, and the sun was out. I spent the morning strolling through the narrow cobblestone streets of old town, photographing and window shopping.
And the afternoon in the harbor, shooting and dreaming about how cool it would be to live on one of these huge yachts. 🙂
On the train home, I promised myself to go back again, at least one more time before I left France. And I did. On my last visit, I went on a long walk from Antibes to Juan-les-Pins, following the sea around Cap d’Antibes, the beautiful peninsula that lies between the two towns.
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More French Riviera on the Blog
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