Closed on Mondays

Kyra in one of those picturesque alleys
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Rick:

We weighed anchor early Monday morning and made our way around the cape to the city of Antibes.  Antibes claims to be the busiest port for pleasure boats in the Mediterrenean.

Ultimately, we got a place in the old harbour, and got squared away to head off to the many and varied museums of Antibes.  We wandered the amazing cobbled streets of the old Antibes looking for an info centre and generally checking the place out.  When we found the info centre, the uninspired clerk told us that everything we were interested in was closed on Mondays.

Milkshakes on the plaza
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We decided that we should stay an extra day and we launched ourselves on an adventure to see the hilltop villiage of Biot.  First we had to find the train or bus station.  We found the train station first.  We took a train 1 stop to Biot and discovered that it wasn't the quaint villiage we were looking for, it was a bustling industrial area with mega tourist parks including an amusement park and Marineland.  While trying to regroup, we discovered that the Biot Village was " kilometers away uphill and inland.  So we caught a bus into the villiage.

Fort Carre w-rat proofing
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The villiage is known for its glasswork and is loaded with little art galleries and artisan shops.  It is all old and cobbled.  We took dozens of pictures of pictuesque alleys.  We have taken a lot of similar pictures in many of the places we have been, but they are all so cool.  You just don't get that kind of thing in Canada.  Everywhere we turn, there is another amazing picture waiting to be taken.

So, we wandered around Biot in the scorching heat.  Kyra chatted up the local artists and we took it all in.  We finished our visit sharing milkshakes in the plaza, then we made our way back to Antibes.

On the way back, we saw that the Fort Carre brochure said it was open everyday through the summer.  We foolishly decided to risk believing it and headed off to see for ourselves.  It was a long walk in the hot hot sun.  When we got there, we discovered that the entrance was around the other side of the stadium.  After walking around the stadium, and up the hill we found that the fort was closed in spite of what the brochure said.  So, we made our hot, sticky way back to the boat.

Tuesday was Museum Day!  We started by heading back to the fortress.  We had discovered that there is a free shuttle.  The shuttle comes about every 15 minutes, but they didn't mention how often it leaves.  We waited a few minutes, and the shuttle arrived.  Just in time for the driver to take a break for half an hour.  We made the best of the situation by going for coffee and a croissant in an open air cafe.

After coffee, we took the shuttle to the fortress and got a group tour, in English!  Fort Carre was pretty cool.  Originally built in the 1500s, there were significant renovations up to the 1700s.  One cool thing we discovered was the purpose of the half-round stone molding we typically see encircling fortresses just below the battlements.  It is a device designed to keep rats out.

After the fortress, we made our confused way back across the cape to the Napoleon Museum.  As it turns out, it is in an old stone bastion about 400m from where we anchored at Juan-les-Pins.  The Napoleon Museum was pretty cool.  I am pretty familiar with the history of the Napoleonic period, but from the English perspective.  There were a lot of interesting artifacts, models, etc from the period.

Our next stop was the Museum of Archeology.  It is housed in the West Bastion, at the end of the fortified sea wall.  Its focus is the Roman influence on the local area.  They have some amazing Roman artifacts, mostly recovered from shipwrecks.  Those Romans were some pretty amazing engineers.

That night, we had planned to go out for drinks after dinner.  We were looking for a place that had live music.  Not much sign of live music in pubs and bars here in France.  It was World Cup Soccer night, France Vs Spain, so most of the bars were packed with people crouded around TV screens.  After wandering around for a while, not finding what we were looking for, we decided to join in with the World Cup energy and watch the rest of the game.

It took us another half hour to find a place that had room for us.  Eventually we found a place that had seat for the 3 of us out on a small plaza.  When we joined the game, it was the 2nd half and the score was tied 1-1.  We ordered our drinks and watched the French fans celebrate the scoring of two more goals to win the game.

There was a lot of noise after the game, with scooters and hatchbacks doing victory laps around the town, honking their horns, and hanging out of the windows.  We went to sleep that night with the sounds of celebration raging in the background.

Kyra:

So, yes we can honestly say we've been enjoying Antibes, with all its charms and confusion.  Amid all the history, I discovered some very cool art galleries - there were two I particularly enjoyed, they carried contemporary art - from a variety of artists - many were mixed media like my works - I was inspired and excited by what I saw and really missed my studio - the itch to paint was overwhelming!

Now we're off to get some groceries and prep the sailboat for our next destination: Nice!