With precision planning the four of us plus luggage crammed into the car for the 90 minute drive to coastal Antibes, thereby avoiding putting Rosey and Zoe on the train which was our back up plan.
I’m not going to say it was comfortable for anyone but me and the teal suitcase but we got there!
Luckily the drive was mostly on motorways and we reached Antibes without incident. Our apartment for the next three days was in a pedestrian only zone so we found the closest parking area and dragged the first load up the hill toward Le Commune Libre du Safranier.
The ‘free’ commune established in the 1960s is a community which shares and celebrates annual events and traditions that it wants to protect and preserve. It covers a small area of the old town of Antibes, only a few streets, and it has the Place du Safranier at its heart. Our apartment overlooked the Place (‘square’) from the rear balcony and the front door opened onto one of the prettiest streets around.
The very friendly cleaner was happy for us to leave our luggage whilst we returned the car and Zoe and I set off to do this, arranging to meet the others in the old town thereafter. With plans going well until then it was only a matter of time before we were undone… the car had to be returned with a full tank of fuel and we very cleverly found a servo, then a second and then a third…all unmanned and not accepting any of our credit cards 🤔😢
Finally accepting defeat we returned the car about 2/3 full and were later billed the equivalent of nearly $AUD200 for the petrol and service fee! It seems that France has enthusiastically embraced the unmanned service station in recent times but they don’t like our credit cards at all.
The Italian SIM cards though were still doing their job and we were able to find Russell and Rosey amidst some sort of local festival involving colourful and minimal Brazilian costumes and flowerpots.
It appeared to be celebrating spring and flowers but unfortunately the weather wasn’t very spring like, colour and music it did provide though and we spent some time watching the whole parade with excited children throwing carnations off of the floats.
Afterwards we strolled the harbour area and found one of my ‘must see’ attractions, the Nomade.
Nomade is one of the most intriguing structures in the town of Antibes. Sitting outside the Bastion Saint-Jaume, this gigantic white sculpture is the masterpiece of Jaume Plensa, a Spanish sculptor and depicts a man sitting calmly looking at the sea. He is constructed of letters from the Latin alphabet and was purchased by the city of Antibes and the nearby Picasso museum, in 2007.
Unfortunately we couldn’t get a nice blue sky background but he was still pretty spectacular I thought. (We tried to get a night time view a few nights later but were disappointed to find access closed at night.)
The next day we combined a train journey to Monaco with a little side trip up the mountain to the picturesque village of Èze, a medieval village with unsurpassed views of the Cote d’Azur.
After lunch and a leisurely stroll which included Les Jardines Exotique on the site of the old castle, we realised we had a lengthy wait for the next bus down the hill to the train station. Throwing (fiscal) caution to the wind we flagged an impressive looking black van with very tinted windows and were transported in style to Monaco in the principality of Monte Carlo.
Monaco was preparing for the Grand Prix a few days later and as we alighted from our car in front of the famous Casino, our driver informed us that the man walking past my window was none other than the Mayor of Monaco. Not wanting to miss such an opportunity I said ‘Bonjour!’ to him out of my window and he turned with a very surprised expression and acknowledged my greeting 🤣
The harbour was of course full of the requisite luxury yachts, especially given the Grand Prix and the concurrent Cannes Film Festival just down the coast.
We wandered around the harbour along what would be the actual track and pit lane and eventually back to the train station for the scenic journey back toward Antibes.
The next day as the weather began to improve we decided to hike the Cap d’Antibes coastal path. This very scenic 4.8 km hike skirts some very expensive real estate and we got a flavour of the local residents as we set off and spied the very futuristic ‘Sailing yacht A” on the horizon. Sailing yacht A is owned by a Russian billionaire and was launched in 2015 at an estimated cost of 400 million dollars! We thought it looked like something straight out of a Bond film and totally at home on this coastline.
On completion of the walk we found the bus that would return us to within a short walk of our apartment …
Tonight being our last night we began scanning TA for restaurant recommendations within walking distance and soon settled on the delightful Le Figuier de Saint-Esprit.
Special from the moment we walked in, the service, ambience, presentation and food was a fitting conclusion to a great trip ( and one which cleaned out the last of the holiday budget 🤣)
The next day we headed to Nice airport, farewelled Rosey who was heading to the UK and began the long trip home… planning for 2020 commenced 😉
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