Antibes

Got sick and tired of Cannes and sailed over to Antibes. Antibes is only 5 miles or so from Cannes, but there's a world of a difference between the two cities.

Antibes is an ancient town. Originally settled by the Greeks in 5th century BC, and maintained as an important trading outpost by the Romans thereafter, it has the aura of an established town that will last for another twenty centuries, whereas Cannes seems like a pop bubble that has expanded beyond its capacity and burst. The city walls, a castle and a fort, all within a mile of each other, provide testimony to the complex history of the town.

Antibes Fort. Large holes for cannons mark a city that has not been sieged or sacked that often.

Street view

This city seems to attract an entirely different kind of visitor. It has almost no beach, so there is little beach culture around here. Instead, there are lots of families, strolling around on narrow streets.

My particular entry into Antibes was very complicated: I hailed them on the radio, whereupon they asked me for the dimensions of the boat. And, having spent too much time in Spain, I totally messed up: I got the 6.5 meters out fine, but instead of 3m, i.e. "trois metres" in French, I said "tres metres" as in Spanish, which sounds like 13 meters in French. The poor guy at the marina asked if I was 13 meters long and 6.5 meters wide, which I misunderstood and thought "what a moron, who would make a boat that is 3m long and 6.5 meters wide." Simultaneously, he must have been thinking "what a moron, he bought a boat that is 6.5m long and 13 meters wide." Anyhow, in the end, he announced that he could not fit me into any slot and that I'd have to anchor in the bay that is open to east winds in an easterly. This was rather frustrating, as I could see a lot of empty slots inside. Anyhow, I pulled into the fuel quay, whereupon we sorted out the misunderstanding and got the permission to stay in Antibes overnight.

Picasso was invited to Antibes and granted a stay at the castle, where he built an atelier and produced 10+ paintings, 20+ drawings and lots of pieces of pottery. The locals then built a museum and acquired more pieces by Picasso, as well as other cubist artists. I was most affected by "The Man in the Hat," whose picture I could not take because it is forbidden and there was a lady, who enforced the no camera rule. But it's a museum well worth the price of admission.

Picasso Museum in Antibes

Little girl with doll

Three Picasso statues

There are lots of quaint little corners in this town.

Houses on a hilltop

Discovered these weird vegetables here. They're micro-cucumbers. Incidentally, I'll file away "micro-cucumber" or its French equivalent as an insult to shout at people in traffic.

Tasty, but inefficient