after looking out at the Mediterranean Sea for the past several days we decided it was time for a visit. There are many beautiful and famous towns along the Côte d’Azur including St. Tropez, Cannes, and Cap Ferrat, but our choice was the town of Antibes.  Noted for its beautiful old town and its sandy beaches, Antibes lies just west of Nice, and about 20 kilometers from La Gaude.  After spending the morning at home we left for the coast in the early afternoon.  Once again the driving and parking proved a challenge, and I was gratified to get behind a student driver so the locals had someone else on whom to focus their disdain.  Ignoring caution and common sense, the French drivers would pass on blind curves, steep descents and impossibly narrow roads; motorcyclists are the worst, and our gasps of astonishment as they raced past were followed by sighs of relief as they escaped calamity by millimeters.

On reaching Antibes we parked the car and briefly walked the town before a tour of the Picasso museum there.  Picasso lived and worked in Antibes in 1946, and while not his best work the museum was enjoyable and complimented by a series of photographs of Picasso taken at the time.  My favorite painting was called ‘Ulysses and  Sirens’ – an enormous canvas featuring our hero lashed to the mast as the sea nymphs try to lure him to his death.

After our cultural detour we launched for our main objective, a sheltered beach in town that looked inviting for a swim.  Now let me say that we did spot a few topless older women along the beaches on our ride into town, but this was a family friendly spot, and all the boys were disappointed at the views.  Most of the beaches along the coast are quite rocky and only a few have sandy shores.  As we stepped into the water the coarse sand turned quickly to pebbles and then rocks covered with seaweed. It was necessary to quickly immerse to gain the buoyancy needed to avoid an awkward fall into the sea.  The water itself was wonderfully cool and clear.

I swam to a rocky break wall nearby and could see small fish in the water below.  As I reached for a rock a small hermit crab raced for safety in a nearby hole. After a short swim I headed back to shore, rinse off in the handy beachside shower and headed off to explore the fortressed walls enclosing the nearby harbor.  As we discovered, there were several adjacent harbor areas with small boats then small yachts then large yachts.  The really large yachts rested offshore, and small sailboats that glided among them resembled the toy boats we had seen at Luxembourg Gardens in Paris.

After our sojourn to the sea we headed back to La Condamine, caught our breath and then drove to Vence where we had our dinner in an outdoor cafe.  A French couple seated next to us struck up a conversation and we compared our impressions of France(crowded, beautiful, historic and with horrible parking) with their impressions of America (big, beautiful, young and easy driving).  We were home by near midnight and went to bed for a restful night’s sleep.