Winter Juan Les Pins, France
The air is crisp and clear this time of year here in the South of France. It is also very quite compared to the tourist-loaded summer season. We took advantage of a sunny day today and made a simple picnic on the beach in Juan Les Pins.
We often try to take in so much of the area here every day, that we forget that just tossing stones at the beach is a nice enough way to spend a few hours. In the summer the public beach in Juan Les Pins is just heaving with people from all over the world. Today there were only a few people putting their foot in the water–including us. It was a good day for a stroll though on the boardwalk and down to the area where the summer Jazz Festival runs.
We then took a slow drive through Juan Les Pins and then out around the cape of Anitbes, passed the Hotel du Cap and the Napoleon Museum (not too much to see there). You can actually drive through the old village of Antibes if you stay on the coast road. We followed it all the way and beyond the Port of Antibes to the Fort Carre to take in the view of the snowy mountains floating majestically over the blue med. Not really good wind for sailing, but sure looks like a nice day on the water nonetheless.
Antibes is a great favorite for many sealovers, especially those from the UK, possibly because Graham Greene lived there for some years. Better known is that Picasso lived in Antibes briefly and left many pieces in what is now the Picasso Museum there (sorta random collection of stuff there see also the Picasso Guerre et Paix Chapelle).
Yeah, and of course Antibes is close to Marineland, so we caught the last Dolphin show on the way back–one good break is the season ticket at Marineland. Kids also love the Frontier Farm there which has benefited from some renovation work.
