Antibes - Juan les Pins (cont'd)
Cap d'Antibes
While there is a direct road from Antibes to Juan les Pin, the more scenic road is Route D2559 around the Cap d'Antibes. From the ramparts of Vieille Antibes the road follows the coast. There are sideroads to the interior of the peninsula, bounded by high walls, beyond which cameras and alarm systems protect the properties surrounded by luxuriant vegetation. One of them is the Château Thénard, the summer residence of Grand Duke Nicholas, cousin of the last Russian czar, who died here in 1929.
Before the road cuts across the peninsula inland turn left to the Plage de la Garoupe, a sheltered, picturesque beach, where Cole Porter and Gerald Murphy used to hang out. From here there you can walk around the eastern half of the Cap d'Antibes on the Sentier Tirepoil. It follows the shoreline as far as the Chemin des Douaniers and the Avenues Beaumont, Tour Gandolphe and André Sella, whereupon it returns to the Garoupe beaches. On the other side of the road a path leads up to the Chapelle de Saint Benoit and further up the hill to La Garoupe with the lighthouse and a belvedere offering panoramic views over the Baie des Anges with Antibes and Nice with the Southern Alpes as a backdrop. Very impressive in early spring, when the peaks of the Alpes are still covered in snow. Nearby is the ancient Église Notre Dame de la Garoupe, which was built on the site of a pagan sanctuary dedicated to the moon goddess Selena. It has two naves, one built in the 13th and the other in the 16th century. Noteworthy are the 14th century altar piece, a superb piece of painted silk dating from the Middle Ages, a cross brought back from the Siege of Sevastopol and two gilded statues portraying "Our Lady who Guards" and "Our Lady of Safe Return". This is a place of pilgrimage for Antibes' fishermen and sailors - the side walls of the church are covered with a collection of personal messages to the Virgin.
Back on the main road, Route D2559, you will pass the famed Hotel du Cap Eden Roc, an exclusive enclave of the world's mega wealthy. It is the same glamorous setting where F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote and set "Tender Is the Night", a tragic love story about wealthy Americans. Basic suites at the Hotel du Cap - the Hôtel des Étrangers in the novel - start around €5000 a night. Nearby is the Musée Naval et Napoléon at le Grillon battery on the Golfe du Juan. The museum displays Napoleonic memorabilia such as his autograph, several proclamations, model soldiers from the Grand Army and a bust by Canova. The naval section shows many fine model ships. In 1794 Napoléon Bonaparte, at a very early stage of his career, was in charge of defending the coast. He had just met and married Josephine and moved his family into a house in Antibes. Pay from the Revolutionary government in Paris was meager and often late, so to make ends meet, Napoleon's mother Laetitia did the family's laundry in one of Antibes' lavoirs (public wash house) and his sisters regularly stole fruits from their landlord's garden. When Robespierre fell, Napoléon was briefly imprisoned in the Fort Carré. Much later, on his epic return from Elba for the last 100 days of his reign, he landed on the shores of the Golfe de Juan on March 1, 1815.
Close to the museum a small road leads to the Jardin Botanique de la Villa Thuret, a large botanical garden named after its creator, Gustave Adolphe Thuret (1817-1875), a botanist who imported plants from tropical climates to study their acclimatisation here. The garden now has over 3,000 species of plants and trees.
Juan les Pins
Coming from Cap d'Antibes the road meanders along the coast and skirts a number of coves such as Port de l'Olivette and Port Mouton. Juan les Pins today shows little of the elegance of its early days. It started life in the 1920s when the small fishing village on the Golfe de Juan with its fine sandy beach was discovered by a group of rich Americans. It was the composer Cole Porter (1891-1964) and his wife, Linda, who introduced Gerald and Sara Murphy to Juan les Pins. The Murphys were young, wealthy and extremely sociable Jazz Age American expatriates living in Paris. In 1923 they bought a seaside chalet, called Villa America and had a constant stream of guests from their wide circle of French and American friends, amongst them the Picassos, Man Ray, Archibald MacLeish, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. The story of the Murphys was vivified by Calvin Tomkins's book "Living Well Is the Best Revenge" and by Amanda Vaill's 1998 biography "Everybody Was So Young".
Continuing the tradition of its American guests from the 1920s and 30s Juan is now the summer venue of an international Jazz Festival, one of the world's best known, with many outdoor concerts amongst the pine trees of the "Pinede Gould" stage. It was the American Jazz musician Sidney Bechet, who revived the Jazz tradition of Juan. He had played in clubs in Paris in the 1920s and in the 1950s he began visiting Juan to perform and compose music. Bechet died in 1959 and a year later the festival was staged for the first time. Juan les Pins is where most of the nightlife in the Antibes area takes place. Many fashionable pubs and nightclubs are here, a few piano bars and and a casino.
Beaches
Antibes-Juan les Pins has 17 public beaches, many with showers and WC. Quite often private sections are next to public beaches. You have to pay an admision fee and they provide lounge chairs and in many cases bistro type food and drinks - you feel like being on a cruise ship.
Antibes: Plage de la Brague, Plage de la Fontonne, Plage la Siesta, Plage du Fort Carré on Route RN7, Plage de la Gravette on Amiral de Grasse, Plage le Ponteil on Maréchal Leclerc and Plage la Salis on Boulevard James Wylie.
Cap d'Antibes: Plage de la Garoupe, Plage La Joliette, Plage de la Godille and Plage Le Rocher on Chemin de la Garoupe.
Juan les Pins: Plage d'Antibes-les-Pins on Boulevard du Littoral, Plage la Gallice on Boulevard Baudoin, Plage des Ondes on Boulevard Maréchal Juin, Plage Dulys and Plage Rêve on Boulevard Charles Guillaumont.
Watersports
Antibes-Juan les Pins is a town dedicated to sailing and watersports. Its four yacht harbours, Port Vauban in Antibes, Port Galice in Juan les Pins, Port de la Salis and Port du Crouton on Cap d'Antibes have around 3200 moorings. They are amongst the most famous and largest yacht charter harbors in the Mediterranean offering motor, sailing, bareboat charter, skippered, crewed yachts, catamaran, power boat, sailboat, luxury yachts and super yacht charters. The yacht charter season runs from April to the end of October with the summer season in July and August as the busiest.
The Voiles d'Antibes is one of the world's largest regattas for classical yachts. The Trophée Panerai has categories for vintage yachts (built before 1950), classic yachts (built before 1976), and the metric classes (6m, 8m, and 12m) and as well as historic yachts of the 20th century. It takes place the beginning of June.
Later in June is Festival of Saint Peter, an annual celebration of the patron saint of fishermen with a colourful corso through the town, followed by a nautical procession along the coast with richly adorned fishing boats.
