Two days in Antibes and the Cap

Day 1 – the old town and the port

1. 1Marché ProvençalThe covered market of the Cours Masséna – the old «Place Vieille», renamed in 1860 – has fed the town since farmers came to sell here at the start of the nineteenth century; its metal hall dates from 1928.
2. 2Musée PicassoThe Château Grimaldi stands where the acropolis of Greek Antipolis stood, above the sea wall.60 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
3. 3Antibes Cathedral (Notre-Dame-de-l’Immaculée-Conception)Antibes was a bishopric from the fifth century until 1244, and its former cathedral – also called Notre-Dame-de-la-Platea – is still the largest church in town.50 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
4. 4Musée Peynet et du Dessin humoristiqueRaymond Peynet drew his famous «Amoureux» in 1943 and settled in Antibes in 1976; the museum on the Place Nationale opened in 1989 with nearly 300 works he gave the town.200 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
5. 5Port VaubanA natural harbour since antiquity in the Anse Saint-Roch, it was given a first dyke in the sixteenth century, a jetty in 1648 and Vauban’s works from the 1680s.690 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
6. 6Nomade, by Jaume PlensaAn eight-metre figure made of steel letters, open to the sky, on the point of the Bastion Saint-Jaume at the end of the port.260 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
7. 7Fort CarréBuilt on the orders of Henri II in the middle of the sixteenth century, the fort watched the border with the County of Nice from its rock 26 metres above the sea; it was operational by 1585 and first attacked in 1592, by the Duke of Savoy’s army.650 m from the last stop, as the crow flies

Day 2 – the Cap

1. 1Plage de la SalisThe long sandy beach between the old town and the Cap, with shallow water that makes it the town’s favourite for small children and, across the bay, the ramparts of Vieil Antibes with the Alps behind.
2. 2Chemin and chapels of the CalvaireThe walkers’ way up to the Garoupe plateau: the Chemin du Calvaire leads past the chapel of the Mont-Calvaire to the top of the Cap.760 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
3. 3La Garoupe LighthouseA first lighthouse was lit on the Garoupe plateau in 1837; blown up by the German army in August 1944, it was rebuilt in 1948, 29 metres tall.30 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
4. 4Notre-Dame de la GaroupeThe sailors’ chapel on the top of the Cap is a fourteenth-century church in the Provençal Romanesque style, listed since 1926.80 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
5. 5Plage de la GaroupeThe sandy cove on the eastern side of the Cap, below the plateau, facing the Baie des Anges – one of the best-known beaches on the Riviera for its setting.1110 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
6. 6Jardin botanique de la Villa ThuretThe botanist Gustave Thuret, famous for his work on seaweed, came south for his health and created this garden on the Cap in 1858 to see which exotic plants could live on the Riviera.1410 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
7. 7Villa EilenrocA neoclassical villa finished in 1867 on plans attributed to Charles Garnier, at the tip of the Cap in an eleven-hectare park by the sea.2080 m from the last stop, as the crow flies
8. 8Les PêcheursSet just above the water on the Cap’s western shore, Les Pêcheurs looks out over the Lérins islands and the foothills of the Estérel.2010 m from the last stop, as the crow flies

Distances are straight lines between the stops; the walk is longer in the lanes. Every stop has its own page with opening notes and sources.

Sources