Antibes

Life Down To Earth

There are so many nice little resort towns in French Riviera — Côte d’Azure, Antibes is one of them — beautiful and charm, but its uniqueness is its down-to-earth life. It’s located on the east side of a neck of land called La Garoupe. It was founded in the 5th-century BC. As a Greek colony and Roman settlement, it was known as Antipolis (Ἀντίπολις, Antípolis, lit. “Cross-City”) from its position relative to Nice (anc. Nicaea).

We arrived in Antibes by train which is only 30 minutes southwest from Nice. As soon as we got into it we found it’s such nice place where its people live a life down to earth and relaxing.

Too early in a quiet weekend morning. The streets are very quiet.

We learned sadly that Paris was having horrific Friday night under terrorist attack. But here we rarely see anything unusual or people worried.

Breakfast deserts from Boulanger stores in the city. People line up to buy their breakfast.

Rotisserie chicken. Smell great. We bought a whole young chicken for 10 euro as our brunch. Tasting very crispy and delicious.

Fish markets — new fishes caught every morning. Very fresh and you have to buy quickly as the fishes will be gone very fast.

The Musée Picasso, formerly the Château Grimaldi at Antibes, is built upon the foundations of the ancient Greek town of Antipolis. From 1925 the chateau was known as the Grimaldi Museum. In 1946 it was the home for six months of the artist Pablo Picasso. Today the museum is known as the Picasso Museum, the first museum in the world to be dedicated to the artist.

Church’s tower announces the time every half hour.

Picasso’s works facing the peaceful Mediterranean.

Picasso’s painting inside Picasso museum.

Picasso’s works.

You can see the border line — half clear sky and other half cloudy sky.

Antibes harbor. Lots of yachts — very expensive ones owned by rich people and lots of fish boats — very cheap ones owned by local fish men

I seem to have seen this art before from Internet. Today to see it real, it was amazing. It is named “Nomade” which is 8 meters tall, was created by Spanish artist and sculptor Jaume Plensa.

It used the formal vocabulary developed by the artist over the last few years, based on letters. With this vocabulary, Plensa is suggesting that, beyond its simple mission of communicating a meaning, spoken or written language can also be seen as a kind of envelope covering the matter and energy that constitute us. “Like bricks’’ he says, “letters have a potential for construction. They enable us to construct thought.” Plensa’s large Nomade, which visitors can get inside, invites us to travel within it. Reaching beyond its constituent materials, its space, all emptiness and silence, opens up to the sea and spreads out before it, like a gigantic figurehead on the prow of the bastion Saint-Jaume.

Why it’s called Côte d’Azure? Can’t you tell from the color of the sea?

Farmer markets — lots of fresh fruits and vegetables and other stuff. Yet very clean and well organized. It’s very pleasant to visit.

Flowers

Persimmons

Pumpkin flowers — we used to grow pumpkin in our backyard and ate it’s flowers. Very tasty.

Dried tomatoes and nuts

Sausages

Oysters and mussels

This man is making Socca. Socca is local pancakes that go back at least to 1860. Cade de Toulon, probably the most ancient, was made from corn flour and the Socca de Nice that evolved from it is made from chick-pea flour. The Marseilles version is today made with a mixture of flours, using only a small amount of chick-pea flour; in Marseilles this was called “tourta tota cada”, meaning “tourte toute chaude”, or nice hot tarts. It was mentioned in 1879 by Frédéric Mistral as “gâteau de farine de maïs qu’on vend par tranches à Marseille” (or in the vulgar tongue “corn-flour cake sold by the slice in Marseilles”).

I bought one piece, it’s tasting very good — soft and a little sweet.

There is an antique flea market selling all very old stuff — some stuff probably dated back 100 years ago. I saw an old money note from 1930’s Republic of China worth about 20 gold unit. The sellers asks for 20 Euro.

Antibes — the people here are living a life down to earth. They know how to enjoy a relaxing and easy life. They are not very rich but they seem to be happy.