I visited Antibes in July 2023 as a guest of the Antibes Tourist Office, and I fell in love with the town at first sight. The combination of an old town with a fascinating history, a brilliant blue sea, and wonderful food is exactly what I look for everywhere I travel in France, so it’s no surprise that I highly recommend spending a few days here. Don’t believe me? Check out this short video that shows off all the wonders of the town.
One of the perks of being a guest of the local tourist office is that they set the itinerary, not me. As a result, I got to visit several places I probably would never have found on my own, since they’re not all in the guidebooks, and since my main interest is history, when I plan my own trips I tend to miss other interesting and important things.
The itinerary you’ll find here includes things that interest me (like cathedrals and museums) as well as other elements that will enrich your trip (for example, a visit to a cellar where you can taste absinthe). Most of it focuses on the old town, but I added an extra section at the end about Cap d’Antibes and Juan-les-Pins, about a 15-minute drive away, which are well worth a visit.
The History of Antibes
Before we start our tour, I highly recommend taking 5 minutes to read the article History of Antibes: From a Fortified City to a City of Art. It will give you a clear picture of the town’s history and will make your visit here much richer, since you’ll understand better what you’re looking at.
Old Antibes (Vieux Antibes)
Now that you know the history of Antibes, it’s time to head out and see some of the places mentioned in the history section. Try to pick a day that isn’t too hot (we landed on a typical July day and finished the tour scorched, sweaty, but happy. I wish you to finish it just happy and full 🙂 ).
Port Vauban and Boulevard d’Aiguillon
Let’s start our tour at the port, named after Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban (1633-1707), the great French military architect who fortified Antibes during the 17th century (1680, to be precise). Today you won’t find warships here, but millionaires’ yachts, some of them enormous, practically floating palaces!
One of the monuments that will immediately catch your eye is the Fort Carré (Square Fort), whose construction began back in the 16th century and which was later expanded by Vauban. It stands at the far end of the port, and you can visit it for a small fee (3 euros per person, as of July 2023) and enjoy a stunning view of Antibes and the surrounding area. If you’d like to visit the fort, I highly recommend checking this link, which has opening hours and other useful information.
By the way, when you’re walking there and taking in the view, you might remember that this spot appeared in Sean Connery’s film “Never Say Never Again” (his unofficial James Bond film from 1983). You can hear more about it in this video:
Another monument there’s no chance you’ll miss is the Nomade statue by the Barcelona-born sculptor Jaume Plensa (born 1955). It’s a giant sculpture of a faceless figure made of letters, gazing out at the sea. It’s an allegorical work that tries to show the connection between humans and the written word, and it was originally created for a temporary exhibition in 2007, before being bought by the city of Nice in 2010. If you’re staying in Antibes, I recommend seeing it both in the morning and at night, to enjoy its lighting.
From there, head to the Porte de la Marine and enter the old town through the ancient gate in the walls, straight onto Rue Aubernon, where you can see where fish used to be salted. From there, head to Bd. d’Aiguillon.
This street is named after the Duke of Aiguillon (Emmanuel-Armand de Vignerot du Plessis-Richelieu, duc d’Aiguillon, 1720-1788), a French military officer and relative of the Duke of Richelieu, the man credited with inventing mayonnaise.
And why was a fountain built in his honor? Because he was the one who had the old Antibes aqueduct restored, bringing clean water to the town.
The street named after the Duke of Aiguillon is a very pleasant one, lined with all sorts of boutiques, as well as cafés and restaurants, of course.
The boutique that’s stuck with me the most is at number 27: the glassblowing studio of Didier Saba, a highly regarded glass artist considered one of the best in his field in all of France.
It’s a real pleasure to stand and watch him take glass melted in a furnace at around 2,000 degrees Celsius and turn it into a work of art. Didier is a charming, funny man, and you’re welcome to watch him at work, and maybe even buy one of his pieces.
Place Nationale
From Boulevard d’Aiguillon, keep going straight, then turn left onto Rue de Thuret. You’ll find plenty of restaurants and food shops on this street too. But we’ll keep going straight until we reach Place Nationale, with a column at its center.
This column (5 meters tall) was a gift from King Louis XVIII (r. 1814-1824), given to the people of Antibes as an honor for refusing to let Napoleon, who had just escaped from Elba and landed in France, enter the town.
In fact, not only did they refuse to let Napoleon into the town and force him to go to Cannes instead, they also threw the detachment of soldiers Napoleon had sent into jail, as you can read in the article on the Route Napoléon.
The Provençal Market (Marché Provençal) and the Absinthe Cellar
From Place Nationale, continue along Rue de Sade until you reach the Provençal market. Before I say a few words about the market itself, I have to answer a question: how is there a street in France named after the man who, not entirely by choice, gave his name to the phenomenon of sadism (and who, along the way, wrote a series of violent erotic novels)?
The reason is quite mundane: the Marquis de Sade (Donatien Alphonse François, marquis de Sade, 1740-1814) was a descendant of the de Sade family, which had lived and worked in Provence for hundreds of years, and it’s the family, not the famous marquis himself, that gave the street its name. For many years the Sade family was embarrassed by the title, but in recent years, following a kind of rehabilitation of the marquis’s reputation, they’ve started using the title again.
From the appetites of the Marquis de Sade, let’s move on to the meats, fish, and Provençal dishes sold at this market in Antibes.
This market is open every day, and in my eyes it’s practically a school of Provençal cuisine. You’ll find people selling anchoïade (anchovy spread), tapenade (olive spread), and even someone baking socca right in front of you, a kind of oily pancake made from chickpea flour that’s typical of the region.
So you don’t miss the market, remember it’s open every morning from 6:00 to 13:00 (after that, the food market turns into a market for potters, sculptors, and painters who live in and around Antibes). If you arrive too late and miss the food market and want to drown your sorrows in something strong, let me recommend l’Absinthe Bar, located in a 9th-century cellar right in the market area.
Absinthe, also known as “the Green Fairy,” is a drink with a very high alcohol content (70 percent and up), and during the 19th century it became notorious for causing addiction, hallucinations, and even blindness. None of that hurt its popularity: to this day, Happy Hour (when alcohol is sold cheap at cafés and restaurants) is still called “l’Heure Verte,” the Green Hour, in French.
A lot of absinthe has flowed since then, and today you can drink this beverage, which contains alcohol, anise, and a plant called Artemisia absinthium, which gave the drink its name. And there’s no better place to try absinthe than at the Absinthe Bar.
You go down into a mysterious cellar whose walls are covered in posters, some of them ads for absinthe, and others actually created to get people to stop drinking it.
If the poster hasn’t sent you climbing back up the stairs to street level, you can sit down at a table, where the ritual begins.
The waitress will ask whether you want the white version (stronger) or the green one (slightly less strong), and once you choose, a glass will be placed on your table with a spoon and a sugar cube balanced on top. In the middle of the table sits a fountain with taps that slowly release water, dissolving the sugar cube and letting it drip into the absinthe glass. Once the sugar has fully dissolved, you drink the mixture.
I’m happy to report I left the place with the same eyesight I came in with, and if you want to try it too, you’ll be glad to know it’s open every day from 9:00 a.m. to 2:30 a.m.
Address: 25 Cr Masséna.
The Best Pissaladière on the Riviera (and Maybe in All of France)
Pissaladière is a kind of Provençal “pizza” made with dough, caramelized onions, and anchovies, but no cheese and no tomato sauce. Anyone traveling through Provence has to try one at least once in their life.
So if you haven’t tried pissaladière yet, or if, like me, you’re in love with this dish, I’m happy to introduce you to the man widely, and rightly, considered the best pissaladière baker on the Riviera (and most likely in all of France, and I’m fairly confident in the whole world).
I’m talking, of course, about Jean-Paul Veziano, who is much more than just a pissaladière baker: he’s also the man who baked the bread for the wedding of the Prince of Monaco. Beyond the bread and pissaladière you’ll find there, you’ll also meet a charming, warm person, who even visited Israel and made a point of baking together with Jewish and Arab bakers, in an effort to build peace through dough.
Address: 2 rue de la Pompe
Open Wednesday through Sunday, 6:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Closed Mondays and Tuesdays.
The Safranier Quarter (Quartier du Safranier)
After eating a piece of pissaladière, continue along the charming Rue du Bas Castelet, with its colorful houses. This is where a bohemian quarter begins: back in the 1960s it declared itself independent, and it’s been electing its own “mayor” ever since.
Keep going and you’ll eventually reach a square named after the writer Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957), who lived in Antibes and wrote Zorba the Greek there, which most of you know thanks to this dance:
The Picasso Museum and the Cathedral of Antibes
After you finish visiting the church, climb the stairs in the square until you reach the Château Grimaldi, home today to the Picasso Museum.
This château once housed the bishops of Antibes (though for much of that time they actually preferred to live in Grasse), and between 1385 and 1608 it was home to the Grimaldi family. It later became the residence of the French king’s governor in Antibes, then a town hall, and then an archaeological museum.
Picasso Museum aside, the Château Grimaldi is well worth a visit for its historical value alone. During your visit, you can walk along the square tower, built in the 16th century, and enjoy the view from up there. But, as I said, most of you will come here to see Picasso’s works, so let’s say a few words about those.
Picasso worked in Antibes from September to November 1946, living there with his partner at the time, Françoise Gilot (1921-2023), who died about a month before my visit to the museum. Picasso was strongly influenced by Antibes’s Greek past and by Greek mythology, and the result is a series of paintings featuring satyrs, centaurs (some claim the bearded centaur is Picasso himself), nude figures, and more. You’ll also find photographs of Picasso at work in Antibes.
By the way, Picasso wasn’t the only painter who worked in Antibes, so on the same floor you’ll also find works by the painter Hans Hartung (1904-1989) and the Russian-born artist Nicolas de Staël (1914-1955), who lived in Antibes and tragically ended his life there.
Fans of modern art, and of Picasso in particular, will find plenty here to enjoy. Others will enjoy the historic building and the view from it. Either way, whether or not you’re into modern art, it’s worth a visit.
Opening days and hours:
From mid-June to mid-September, the museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. The rest of the year, it’s open Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Link for more information and tickets
Not far from the Picasso Museum, you’ll find the Cathedral of Antibes (you can’t miss its red facade).
This church has existed since the 5th century and has been through quite a few upheavals, fires, and destruction (you can read more about this in the article on the history of Antibes).
The church’s facade was built under Louis XV (r. 1715-1774), following the War of the Austrian Succession. Inside, you’ll find a painting of the Madonna by Louis Bréa (1450-1525), perhaps the greatest Renaissance painter of Provence, along with works by lesser-known artists.
From this church, continue along Rue du Saint-Esprit, then onto Rue des Arcaux, where you’ll find plenty of ancient buildings. From there, continue to Cour Masséna and Rue Aubernon, which will lead you straight back to the walls of the old town and the gate you entered through.
That’s where our tour ends, and from there I recommend taking a car or an Uber to Cap d’Antibes, where we’ll continue our tour.
Cap d’Antibes and Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-Pins is a resort town that’s part of the municipality of Antibes. The place first entered the history books under the name Golfe-Juan, since this is where Napoleon landed after escaping from Elba. In 1882, this small village changed its name to Juan-les-Pins, after the pine trees (pins) that grow there.
During the 20th century, Juan-les-Pins became one of the most beloved resort destinations on the French Riviera, not just for its beach and weather, but also thanks to the jazz festival that has been held there since 1960 (you can find information about it at this link). So it’s no surprise that you’ll find plenty of hotels, restaurants, clubs, and shops here. That said, in my opinion, there isn’t much to see here in terms of architecture or natural beauty (I know some readers will want to throw stones at me for this, but Juan-les-Pins felt to me like a flashier, more polished version of a typical beach resort town).
To enjoy the area’s natural beauty and architecture, head to Cap d’Antibes, right next to Juan-les-Pins. There you’ll find beautiful estates and a coastal path along the cliffs. But here’s the catch: almost all these villas belong to various oligarchs and millionaires, so the most you’ll be able to do is get close to their gates and earn a menacing look from whichever bouncer is guarding them.
The one villa you actually can visit is Villa Eilenroc, built in 1867 by none other than Charles Garnier (1825-1898), known for designing the Paris Opera. You can visit the villa on Wednesdays and Saturdays, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., though there are times it’s closed to visitors for various reasons, so I recommend checking this website to make sure it will be open when you plan to visit.
To reach the villa, and to take in breathtaking views of the deep blue sea along the way, you’ll walk along a path called, in French, Tire Poil, which translates to “hair-puller,” since on certain days the wind here is strong enough to blow your hair around.
Unfortunately, due to lack of time, I didn’t get to walk the whole trail (and it was blazing hot, since we were there in July), but based on what little I saw, I can wholeheartedly (pun intended) recommend spending about an hour walking the entire trail, from its start at Plage de la Garoupe to its end (it’s very easy to follow, and there’s almost no chance of getting lost).
With this gorgeous view, our tour of Antibes and its surroundings comes to an end. I hope you enjoyed it!
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