Antibes keeps its sea walls and its old town intact between Nice and Cannes, a tangle of warm lanes inside the ramparts with the Mediterranean breaking just beyond them. Off its harbour ride some of the largest yachts in the world; inside its market the same town sells tomatoes and olive oil as it always has.
I. The ramparts and the market
Walk the sea ramparts for the view back to the snow line of the Alps, then drop into the Marché Provençal on the Cours Masséna — a covered hall of flowers, cheeses and the local socca every morning. Beyond the old town the Port Vauban is the largest marina in Europe, the Fort Carré guarding it from its spit.
“A town small enough to keep its market, large enough to harbour the world’s yachts.”
II. The castle Picasso kept
On the ramparts, the Château Grimaldi became the Musée Picasso after the painter worked here through the autumn of 1946 and left much of what he made to the town. The light, the sea below the windows and the joy of that post-war season are all in the rooms — one of the most personal museums on the coast.
III. The Cap and Juan-les-Pins
South of the town the Cap d’Antibes is a wooded headland of grand villas and the legendary Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc; a coast path, the sentier du littoral, rounds it past coves and rocks. On the western side, Juan-les-Pins keeps its pines and its summer jazz festival, where the giants of the music once played under the trees.
