Introduction and
history 

Citywalk and
cathedral

 Picasso museum

Leave Biot and continue on the N 7 towards Antibes.
ANTIBES:  a superb site, a pity that modern hotel bunkers spoil the view if you look at Antibes from Cap d’Antibes, but the old city and its rising medieval city walls and turrets are magnificent. A yachting town , narrow, winding streets and high houses covered with ivy, so typically provencal, authentic and an indescribable atmosphere. You can't get tired of walking on the ramparts or in the old Antibes....

Cheers from Mme Jack!!

Surprisingly, Antibes in itself is untouristy. But sitting on a terrace, sipping on your glass of wine or espresso, you will soon feel the ambience that escapes nobody. Like Graham Greene; who was a long time resident. He always preferred being there in winter. 
Let’s leave the new city for what it is: a not inelegant side for tourists that are hungry for sand, sea and sun and of a level that doesn’t leave empty Cola cans under the pine trees. Let’s park the car a little outside the walls and let’s concentrate on the old city.
The old Antibes is almost a moving surprise, after the many aesthetic hangovers that we already had to go through along the Cote. In the centre of Antibes is the COURS MASSENA, a long stretched square with small shops, bars and terraces on both sides. 
It is unbelievable what a hell of a noise those merchants make on a market day and how it doesn’t bother us at all if we sit and look from a terrace along the market. The market on the cours Massena is daily ( from 6-12 AM except on Monday) . It is for me one of the most  "sympathique" and authentic markets on the cote. Roofed by an architecture " a la Baltard" the products of the Provence are displayed in a dazzling colour festival and smell so good the Provence ! ! For those who understand French the savoury talking and gestures of the merchants add to the local character. A small flea market is organized every Thursday from 6 AM to 6 PM on the neighbouring place Audiberti. 
At the end of the market hall the Cours Massena becomes the Place Massena and gets wider until the Hotel de Ville appears like coming out of a cartoon. At the end of the place Massena we see an old gate from where the harbour, blue sea and high masts go and come. Take your time here, you’ll see the Riviera like it must have looked a long time ago.
The Greek Antibes has almost the same age as Massilia. Around the 5th century B.C. its founders called the place Antipolis, which means “the city at the other side”. What city was that?  Nobody ever found out what was that “other side”. Nice? (Nikaia), the Ligurian oppidum Biot or the island of Corsica. The Romans, in their turn, built an important city at Antibes and the ruins of the baths, the aqueduct, the circus and the theatre stood until 1691 when Vauban used the stones to construct his massive fortifications.

Antibes by Monet

 In 1388 Antibes became an important border city of the French side when the county of Nice became the property of the house of Savoie. The In 1536, Spanish mercenaries looted and burnt Antibes so that François 1er built a wall around the city. Henri IV ordered Vauban to build fortifications around the city see higher). When Napoleon landed in Golf-Juan coming from the isle of Elbe, Antibes refused to receive him and imprisoned  the 40 delegates of Napoleon.  When the county of Nice returned to France in  1860 the fortifications lots their utility and in 1898, a great part of the fortifications of Antibes were torn down to extend the building of new houses, except those who constituted the sea wall, today the promenade Amiral de Grasse. The funny result is that you can’t see the old city from the sea, passing with a boat. Which gave birth to this anecdote: on the question (after passing Antibes on a boat): ”How did you find it?” Alexandre Dumas once answered: “I didn’t find it at all”.

Bibliography: 

John Pemble, "the Mediterranean Passion, Victorians and Edwardians in the South", (Oxford University Press 1988), Mary Blume, "Cote d'Azur. Inventing the French Riviera" (Thames and Hudson, London 1982) Stephen Liegeard, "La Cote d'Azur (Ed.Serre, Nice 1988), Guide du Routard 1998-99, Patrick Howarth, “When the Riviera was ours” (Century, London 1977, “Greek Settlements on the Medterranean”, essay by J.Moss, “Antibes la belle “ , by Jean Centurion (ed. Nice publ. 1991)

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