Alas, it’s almost time for us to say “au revoir” to Antibes. Antibes has been a great wind-down destination. We still have one more day. Let’s go wander around in vieille ville one last time.
Antibes as Home Base
Antibes would make a good home base for exploring Provence. An easy drive northeast along the coast leads to the cliffside village of Eze. Drive another 10 minutes and you’ll reach Monaco.
Or drive southwest along the coast on D6007 to check out Cannes, just for the day. Stop somewhere along the way for a long lunch by the sea. The drive will be gorgeous.
Or head inland and visit Grasse – France’s perfume capital. If you’re there in late summer, check out the lavender fields nearby. St. Paul de Vence is also worth a visit. We’ll stop there for lunch tomorrow on our way to Nice.
Or Maybe Just Relax
After exploring the Basque Country, then driving here from St. Jean de Luz, we were ready to relax. And if you don’t count walking, that’s just what we’ve been doing. We are on vacation, after all.
For me, Antibes’ Old Town is the perfect French vieille ville. Just about any alleyway here could be a calendar photo. We’re using our last day to take one more look around.
We’ve enter Old Town on one of its main thoroughfares, Rue de la République. It’s a walk-street, but it’s wide enough for those little French delivery trucks to come and go.
The first square we come to is Place des Martyrs de la Résistance. If we stay on Rue de la République, we’ll come to another square, Place Nationale. The restaurant where we had moules-frites for lunch is close by. It’s just about lunchtime now. Should we? Twist my arm!
Marché Provençal
After lunch, we wondered around in the web of alleyways that is the vieille ville until we came to Antibes’ covered market – Marché Provençal.
Many French towns have market days. On market days, farmers and food providers of all kinds come into town, set up stalls, and sell their wares. In addition to fruit and vegetables, you can buy cheese, sausage, seafood, foie gras, fresh spices, fresh herbs, and more.
Sometimes on market days, a whole town a taken over by vendors. It’s a scene. When you visit Provence, find out when each town has its market day and visit on that day.
Antibes doesn’t have a market day, but Marché Provençal is like having market day every day. My guess is that local chefs come here each morning to select the freshest of fresh everything they plan to serve that day.
Tomorrow we’ll check out of our cozy hotel and hit the road. I like driving and seeing the sights, but it’s been nice not thinking about driving for a few days. Now, though, I’m ready to move on.
The plan is to make the short drive to Nice, making a detour to have lunch in St. Paul de Vence. St. Paul de Vence is a beautiful hilltop village just 12 miles inland from Nice.
After lunch and a stroll around St. Paul de Vence, we’ll drive to Nice, check into a hotel, and return the rental car. I’ll be happy to be done with our rental car. Very happy. It has been a source of great angst, torment, and frustration.
But let’s enjoy our last night in Antibes. We can address angst, torment, and frustration next time.
To be continued…
