Sara and Robyn say “Bonjour”

June 26: Antibes and its surrounds

Ok Sammy, here’s today’s collection of pastries to scale…..(noting that the banana is on the small side!)

Today we explored Antibes and its surrounds. Antibes is a resort town between Cannes and Nice on the French Riviera (Côte d’Azur). It’s known for its old town enclosed by 16th-century ramparts with the star-shaped Fort Carré. This overlooks luxury yachts moored at the Port Vauban marina. (More on Antibes later).

We first went to Juan-les-Pins, a sophisticated resort famous for its “Jazz à Juan“ music festival. 

We joined Nicky for her aquarobics class on the beach at Juan-les-Pins. We marched through the clean, warm water, did frog jumps, twists, arm exercises…..so much fun. Didn’t have a camera but here’s us after the event, as well as a picture of one of the private areas which run along the beach (in between the public areas).

After all that exercise, we were hungry, so we stopped for coffee and croissants at one of the many chic coffee shops in the town.

The coffee shop is meant to be famous, so thought I should take a picture , as well as one of the palm lined streets.

We saw them erecting the seating for the jazz festival. This is what it looks like when erected (photo courtesy of Google).

Natalie Imbruglia is headlining the festival in July. And the pavements around the festival precinct have handprints of famous jazz musicians who have played there in the past, like Al Jarreau.

Then we visited Cap d’Antibes. It’s a peninsula dotted with grand villas and famous hotels, but most importantly, it is Nicky’s version of the Nielsen Park walk in Sydney. Called the “tire -poil” (“pull-hair”) coastal track, it owes its name to the sea wind which almost always blows, ruffling the hair of visitors!

An elderly couple were enjoying their time, naked in their boat oblivious to the walkers on the nearby track!

From Cap d’Antibes, you can look across to see to the Chapelle de la Garoupe……….which is where we visited next.

From the plage de la Garoupe, you can see Antibes and the many luxury yachts in the harbour.

In the evening, we explored the old town of Antibes. Narrow streets, cobblestones, beautiful bougainvillea.

At many of the local restaurants, they have fresh produce as part of the display….a box of eggplants by the side of the table, a red capsicum used as table decoration, and we also found a new motorbike for Nicky!

We walked along the ramparts of the old city which had stunning views across the water, as well as a large cactus garden with a humanised cactus!

Robyn was hanging out for muscles, so we found a lovely restaurant in the market area. Here’s some before, during and after shots.

Yes, that is indeed a champagne cooler in which Robyn and Nicky washed their hands…..the restaurant had run out of “wet ones”!

It wasn’t just the food that was a treat. We were also entertained by:

• A near punchup between an angry young man who kept yelling that his bag had been stolen ( it hadn’t …..we clutched our own bags in case he was pulling a stunt!) and
• some buskers who did handstands along the side of the market