Antibes - Juan les Pins
Antibes - Juan les Pins has a population of roughly 80.000, which probably increases 10 fold during the school holidays. The town is part of a contiguous metropolitan area consisting of separately incorporated towns lining the Côte d'Azur from Nice to Théoule sur Mer southwest of Cannes and stretching inland to Grasse. With a fast growing population - a bit like France's version of California - this area probably has by now close to 1 million inhabitants. If it were officially regarded as a metropolitan area, which it is not, it would be France's 5th largest.
Once you have made your way on four lane highways lined with shopping centers, modern apartment buildings and public housing to "Centre Ville" you are ready to explore one of the prettiest historic towns on the Côte d'Azur: Vieille Antibes with narrow cobble-stoned streets and the aura of "Picasso once lived here". It is situated on on the Baie des Anges (Bay of the Angels), the bay stretching from Nice to Cap d'Antibes. Driving west along the coast you will reach Le Cap d'Antibes, one of the most exclusive areas on the Côte d'Azur where the billionaires of our times (nowadays many Russian oligarchs) have their multi-tens-of million dollar villas.
Juan les Pins lies on the next bay west, the Golfe de Juan. Most travel guides tend to glorify Juan les Pins as an elegant town, the place where in the 1920's and 30s, "les années folles", the likes of Scott and Jelda Fitzgerald, Douglas Fairbanks and other Americans vacationed. Reality is a bit different as the town proper is a rather plain looking concrete jungle with a narrow beach, a pretty promenade lined with cafés, bistros and nightclubs and the railway line running just a couple of blocks behind the beach through town. Fitzgerald, Fairbanks & Co. congregated mostly in Cap d'Antibes region. Juan les Pins is a bit more affordable than other towns on the Côte d'Azur, hence many young people vacation here. Beach, sun, sea, nightlife and the annual Jazz festival are an appealing proposition for some to vacation in Juan les Pins.
Antibes
Outside the summer holiday season you should find a parking space close to Vieille Antibes easily. It is a good idea to do the rest by foot - most of the old town is pedestrian only. Walk the narrow, bustling streets lined with restaurants, bistros, art galleries and shops. The market takes place in an open, roofed hall on Cours Masséna every day except Monday. It is a colorful affair offering a great selection of meat, fish, cheeses and vegetables. Cours Masséna is lined on both sides with cafés and bars that are quite busy both day and night. Behind the market is Cathédrale de l'Immaculée Conception built on the foundations of a Roman fort in the 12th century and enlarged in the 17th century. Notable are the ancient clock tower and in the church's interior the Baroque altarpiece and a life-size wooden carving of Christ's death attributed to one of the Bréas, the 15th century Niçoise painters. In January the Festival d'Art Sacré d’Antibes (Festival of Sacred Music) takes place in the cathedral. It is the new year's opening salvo of the many cultural events on the Côte d'Azur and is attended by over 40.000 visitors.
Antibes was founded in the 4th century as a trading post by Greeks from Phoecia. They had established a network of coastal towns, like Massalia (Marseille), Monaco, Agde, Nice and Antibes to trade with the native Celto-Ligurians. The Greek name Antipolis means "the town opposite" - referring to another Greek settlement across the Baie des Anges, namely Nicaea (Nice). As elsewhere on this coast, Antibes was a Roman oppidum for a while before being overrun by Saracens and pirates. In the early Middle Ages ownership of Antibes passed between various noble families and finally it became a bishopric of the Popes in Avignon. When Pope Clement VII of Avignon (he is regarded by the Catholic Church as an anti-pope) was unable to repay a huge loan collateralized by the town of Antibes, he ceded ownership in 1384 to his lenders, the brothers Luc and Marc Grimaldi. Thus Luc Grimaldi became Prince of Antibes - the last descendant of this line died in Brussels in 1940. In 1608 the Grimaldis sold their fort in Antibes to the French King and moved to their castle in Cagnes, the pleasant residence that can be visited there. Antibes was militarily important, since it marked the frontier between France and the Kingdom of Savoy. Fort Carré, overlooking Antibes harbor, and the ramparts along the seawall are the only remains of what was once an impressive fortification.
The Château Grimaldi, built in the 12th century on Roman foundations, houses the Musée Picasso. After the town had bought the château in 1926, it was restored and converted for use as a museum. When Pablo Picasso came to town in 1946 he was invited to stay in the château. The six months Picasso worked here were one of his most productive. He created paintings, drawings as well as ceramics and tapestries and donated all his works to the museum.
A Time Magazine article from October 6, 1947 reports: Antibes' Mayor Jean Pastour, who despised Picasso's work but recognized its market value, had raised the admission price to the castle from 5 to 30 francs. Last week's visitors got their 30 francs' worth: they found 65-year-old Picasso himself pacing before his pictures, looking for all the world like an aging lifeguard. Among the admiring callers at the castle was Chitchatter Elsa Maxwell. "My old and affectionate friendship for Pablo Picasso," she burbled in next day's column, "is too well known to dwell upon. Our friendship during 27 years has always been full of surprises. ... I have always thought Picasso's blue period to be his best until yesterday, when I went to the Grimaldi Museum. ... I had seen quite a bit of Picasso in Paris this winter. When I asked him to come to America and told him about the money he would make there, he shrugged his expressive Latin shoulders, saying: Elsa, I hate the sea and I hate money, and I have been working in the Museum at Antibes on what I believe is my best work."
Today, the Musée Picasso holds the second largest collection of Picasso's works in France. The museum also exhibits paintings of the Russian born artist Nicholas de Staël, who committed suicide in Antibes in 1955, and works of contemporary artists, including some interesting sculptures, on a terrace above the sea. After extensive renovations the museum is scheduled to reopen in summer 2008.
Atop the Promenade Amiral de Grasse is the 17th century fortress Bastion Saint André, which houses the Musée d'Archéologie displaying artifacts from Greek and Roman times found in local digs and shipwrecks. The views of the sea and towards Cap d'Antibes from its ramparts are pretty spectacular. The nearby Plage de la Gravette is a good place to swim but fills up quickly during school holidays.
Port Vauban is the huge modern yacht harbour next to Vieille Antibes, one of the largest in Europe. This used to be the old port which the Greeks established, the Romans expanded and where centuries later Crusaders left for Palestine. But next to nothing is left of those times. On a promontory overlooking Port Vauban stands the 16th century Fort Carré, a massive, star-shaped fortress used by the French military until 1967. The town purchased it in 1997 and it is now being used as a youth and sports center.
There is a small museum worth your visit if you want to delve a bit deeper into local history and traditions, the Musée des Arts et Traditions Populaires. Of a similar nature is the Musée de la Tour in the Tour Gilli on the Cours Masséna, which exhibits costumes, tools, photographs and other objects used by the local people from the 20th century. Finally, on Place Nationale, is a museum exhibiting the drawings of Raymond Peynet (1908-1999), the creator of the "les amoureux" series of sentimental pictures.
Outside Antibes to the north is Marineland, Europe's first marine zoo with dolphins, orcas, penguins, seals and sea lions. Their marine exhibition includes a model of Columbus' Santa Maria made from more than 1 million matchsticks. Close to Marineland are several amusement parks.
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.
France's Picasso Museums