Antibes is a small city made famous by Brigitte Bardot in the late 1950s. Audrey Hepburn and Liz Taylor among other celebrities vacationed here in the 60s. Over the years many wealthy and famous people have come here looking for a summer escape. The old town lives beside the sea, behind walls that are hundreds of years old. Located just a few miles west of Nice, Antibes is perhaps the best known of the small resort towns on the French Riviera. (I’m skipping a few thousand years of the history of Antibes here – if you want to know more turn to my favorite, Wikipedia, by googling “Antibes.”)

Yesterday I took a train ride to Antibes. An old French fort overlooking a marina filled with yachts was the first thing I saw upon departing the station. Snow covered Alps were clearly visible just a few miles inland. I first walked along a street lined with yacht brokerage firms.

A short walk brought me to an opening in the town wall built in the 1600s. Once inside I found a map of the “old town” and a charming Indian restaurant where I enjoyed a good lunch.

One of the entrances to Antibes through its town walls that date from the 1600s.

A map of the old town made of painted tiles. You can see how small it really is — but there are many people living outside the old town.

I wandered on, finding the square at the center of town lined with discrete shops and galleries. “Discretion” seems to be a requirement if the town is to continue attracting the people who own those yachts. By now you know that I love finding authentic places that are hundreds of years old and maintained with grace. Antibes is one of those places.

Following the narrow streets led me to the water’s edge where a wall topped with aged, eroded bricks protects the town. On the other side of the wall is a small beach and some very large yachts.

An old small cathedral faces the sea on the land-side of the narrow road that runs behind the wall. The former castle, now the Picasso Museum, is next to it. Tall old houses made of stone line the route – gardens are tiny and occupy any useable space.

I’ve never seen such a large group of “red hot pokers.” The building in the rear is the Picasso Museum.

I was surprised by the flowers blooming in late February. I haven’t seen many in Nice but already in Antibes the town has started hanging pots of flowers in the square. A row of blooming poppies was in front of the train station. Many homes featured flowers by their doors.

This house is amazing! First, it’s covered in very old vines. It has plants and doo-dads all over it. If you want to see, leave a request in the “Comments” below and I’ll send you more pictures of it. I loved it!

Tomorrow’s a travel day.  I’m flying to Malta.  If you don’t know where that is ask maps.google.com to show you.  I’m excited about going there.

Libbie

Yesterday’s “Flower Parade” was pretty much the same parade I saw on Tuesday evening except that Tuesday’s floats were replaced by floats carrying large bouquets of flowers. I had expected a bit more “Rose Parade” – that is, flower-covered floats. This one featured a parade going around a divided boulevard for about a half-mile in each direction, making a loop and coming back again. The tradition seems to be that the people in the parade throw flowers to the observers, especially branches of yellow flowers from Mimosa trees which are blooming now througout the Riviera. People left with large bouquets, sometimes struggling a bit with a neighbor to grab them.

My seat wasn’t as favorable for this parade as for the previous one. My view was obstructed by the people in front of me and by being too close to the floats as they passed. The view from the other side of the street was between two trees. I found people-watching to be more interesting than the parade so I’m sharing with you today a few photos of both people in the parades and those watching.

With this big smile on her face this young woman was on stilts about a yard high which were on in-line roller skates! She skated about two miles — after having done the same thing for two hours the night before! And still smiling.

Here you can see the 3-feet-tall stilts on skates. How do they do that?

I heard someone say this young woman’s group was from Brazil.

Pretty girls on one of the prettiest floats tossing Mimosa branches to the crowd.

The small band from Kotor, Montenegro. A bevy of girls marched in front of them — more girls than musicians. Behind them, on the other side of the boulevard, you can catch a glimpse of the girls from Korea in their traditional dresses.

An English voice in the row behind me said, “He’s a witch doctor.” Look at the faces of the crowd behind him — they must be thinking that too!

These ladies were on horseback.

All those balloons are tied to her outfit. She’s another I remember from the previous evening — on high roller skates, floating round for miles.

A lovely girl from Nice.

And in the crowd…

Handing her mother a flower she just caught!

You can’t see all of his face but you can see enough to know how delighted he was to see this young lady.

As I was leaving this little guy challenged me with the sword he had just purchased.

It’s just occurred to me as I looked carefully at my pictures that the people performing the more difficult acts — those on stilts and the jugglers and many others — may make a profession of doing their acts in parades around the world. If it’s true that some are from Brazil, I suspect many of them are.  What a way to make a living!

The King of Media

Last night I went to the official Carnaval (Mardi Gras) parade in Nice – it was a fun experience! Huge bleachers are set up for viewers who purchase tickets in advance. It was mostly a parade of floats but there were a few small bands and plenty of lovely young women. I only saw about an hour – it began at 9:00 p.m. and lasted quite a while!

The theme of the parade this year is “King of the Media.” I no doubt missed a lot of the meaning of the floats that French people would understand. The floats seemed to be ridiculing greed and the modern media. For example, the lead float, the “King” was a jester. The Queen’s skirt was made of magazine covers. Other floats and giant balloons were obviously recycled from other years and I didn’t understand their meaning at all. The characters on the floats are beautifully made. Here, with brief explanations, are a very few of the 100+ photos I took.

A small part of the crowd waiting for the fun to begin. (My camera didn’t always handle color well in the darkness.)

The Queen — notice the cell phone coming out of the top of her head,

The first band in the parade was from tiny Kotor, Montenegro. One of my favorite places, Kotor is not very close to Nice. This was one of a few tiny marching bands from far away. Another was from South Korea.

There were many things for children, including this float of Toy Story characters. In addition to Woody they had a number of his favorite toys — but Buzz Lightyear was missing.

To me, this was the strangest float of all. It featured at the front Muammar Gaddafi and an American astronaut, in the center a very large General DeGaulle, and at that rear Moses (or God) with the Ten Commandments. A prize to the person who can explain that!

A very large dinosaur!

There were a number of dancing girls without many clothes.

Before the parade began I had a chance to see the sunset at the nearby Mediterranean beach.

Today I’m off to the afternoon Flower Parade — it is isn’t rained out. Remember, if you want to see a larger version of any of these photos you can simply click on the picture and it will open in a new window.

Libbie

My best memories of Nice from our visit in 2002 are of the market in the old Italian section of town. Nice was traded back and forth a few times by Italy and France before becoming permanently part of France in 1860. But the old part of town, leading up from the waterfront, was – and still is – very Italian.

Today I went to the “Vielle Ville” (the Old Town) and spent a few hours wandering there.

I was delighted to find that the outdoor market was open on Sunday.

My favorite pictures are from the flower market.

Here are some Valentine flowers for you!

Libbie

Yesterday I spent hours on trains going from Montpelier in southwestern France to Nice (pronounced “neece”) on the southeastern corner of France. Until the late 1800s Nice was part of Italy, and the atmosphere here still has that relaxed and happy feeling that Italy is known for.

The view from my train windows yesterday ranged from heavy industrial (oil refineries, for example) to the famous “Cote d’Azur” – Antibes, Cannes, and several less well known towns on the edge of the Mediterranean. There’s a relatively narrow band of flatter land and beaches between mountains and the sea. As we approached Nice the view was of beaches, beautiful city, and snow-capped mountains in the background. I took 85 pictures from the train but mostly I just got reflections on dirty windows. I’ll post three I didn’t delete here to show you a bit of what I saw along the way. These aren’t very good pictures — they were taken from a moving train!

I passed many miles of vineyards yesterday. They are still in their wintertime mode but I’ve seen a few with leaves sprouting.

My apartment for this week is the best! My “hostess” is a lovely lady who has provided everything I could ask for – she even supplied fresh bread, coffee, milk, orange juice, butter and jelly for my breakfast today. The apartment is beautifully decorated and features a queen size bed that folds into a wall. You can see it by clicking here. This apartment is in the center of a busy residential area with all manner of shops and services within a few blocks. Public transportation here is excellent, with a tram a few blocks away that will take me to he center of the city and buses just at the door. One of Nice’s train stations is just five blocks away.

A distant view of Nice with snow covered mountains in the background. The low, late-winter sun was beginning to make everything golden. I tried for a shot that included palm trees but they aren’t good enough to share.

Last night I found a small bistrot near the apartment where I dined on a drum stick of a guinea hen – something I’ve never had before. The food was good and the charming owner/chef was very pleasant to me. Using a mixture of French, English and with help from his smart phone translator, we had a pretty good conversation.

I am here during Mardi Gras, and while I was in the café giant floats passed outside, on their way to join the opening parade which was held last night. I have tickets for two Mardi Gras parades this week. I hope to send you detailed reports and pictures soon.

I’m off to explore this wonderful city. George and I were here for two days in 2002 and I hope my memories help me find my way around.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Libbie