About Vieil Antibes

Vieil Antibes sits on the rock of the ancient town, between the port and the sea wall. Its spine is the Cours Masséna – the medieval «Bourgade», renamed in 1860 – where the Marché Provençal opens under a metal hall of 1928 every morning, except Mondays from September to May. Up the steps, the Château Grimaldi holds the Musée Picasso, beside the cathedral and its Saracen tower.

South of the market, the Safranier, a «free commune» since 1966, keeps its own village life between the Rue de la Tourraque and the Rue du Haut-Castelet; the Greek writer Nikos Kazantzakis lived there. On the Place Nationale, the Musée Peynet stands beside a Carrara marble column of 1818, and the Chapelle Saint-Bernardin of the White Penitents, raised in the sixteenth century on Roman foundations, keeps its sixteenth-century frescoes. Along the sea, Nicolas de Staël painted in a house on the ramparts from September 1954 to March 1955.

Text: Metro Mode. Sources: Office de Tourisme – Antibes step by step; Office de Tourisme – The markets; Office de Tourisme – Antibes, la cité des remparts; Wikipédia – Chapelle Saint-Bernardin d’Antibes.

Vieil Antibes on the map

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What to see in Vieil Antibes

Le VaubanA restaurant of French cooking in a busy street of the old town, the Rue Thuret, cooked with the seasons.L'ArazurA small restaurant tucked into a lane of Vieil Antibes, on the Rue des Palmiers, with modern cooking that follows the seasons.NananèreA bright, modern brasserie on a paved, leafy square in the town centre, with a terrace.Lavoir de la TourraqueOf the three wash houses Antibes once had, only this one, on the Rue de la Tourraque at the edge of the Safranier, remains; women came here to do the «bugade», the laundry.Plage de la GravetteA small sandy beach tucked inside the harbour, at the foot of the ramparts, sheltered from the wind and the swell.Marché 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.Musée PicassoThe Château Grimaldi stands where the acropolis of Greek Antipolis stood, above the sea wall.Musée 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.Le Figuier de Saint-EspritA family house astride the old town’s ramparts, between the Musée Picasso and the Marché Provençal, on the Rue Saint-Esprit.

Antibes 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.Olivier2000 · CC BY-SA 1.0 · Wikimedia Commons Tour Grimaldi (the Saracen tower)The square tower beside the cathedral – the «Saracen tower» of the old town’s walks – is listed with the church and the Chapelle Saint-Esprit as one historic monument.Chapelle Saint-BernardinThe chapel of the White Penitents of Saint Bernardine stands on Roman foundations; local historians date it to 1513 or 1581, and its walnut side door carries the date 20 March 1581.

Places

Sights

Beaches and beach clubs

Plage de la GravetteBeach · Promenade Jean Gismondi

Eat & drink

Hotels

Shops

Through the year in Vieil Antibes

·The Marché ProvençalEvery morning, except Mondays from September to May, under the hall of the Cours Masséna

Recurring events; sources: Office de Tourisme – The markets.

Every street in Vieil Antibes – 106 street guides

Sources

Quartier: INSEE’s IRIS districts (IGN CONTOURS-IRIS, Licence Ouverte 2.0), grouped by VERA PI. Buildings, streets and places: © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbL 1.0, and VERA PI’s own register. Sights: Wikidata (CC0) and the Mérimée base; photographs from Wikimedia Commons under the licence shown on each. Text: Metro Mode, with its sources above.