Picasso and a police chase

After being in France for 3 weeks, it was time to discover a new city! I chose Antibes because it looked promising and was close and easy to get to.

Antibes is east of Cannes, and is also along the coast. It took about 20 minutes on the train to get there from Mandelieu. Price to get there: 3 euros. I'd honestly never heard of it until this summer when we came very close to living there (David had 2 job offers- and the one he didn't take was there).

Right away as you exit the train station, you're in front of the yacht-filled harbor. There are thousands of shiny, expensive-looking yachts. That's not even an exaggeration- apparently Port Vauban is the biggest marina in Europe. 

Behind the harbor, you can see the medieval Fort Carré. Part of a James Bond movie was filmed there.



I headed straight for the main tourist attraction in Antibes, the Musée Picasso. The Picasso art itself didn't interest me per se (not really my style), but the history and location of the building did. The museum is located inside the Château Grimaldi, and the royal family of Monaco lived there during the Middle Ages (royalty is more my style).

In the 1940s, Picasso called the chateau home for 6 months. He left some of his art behind... hence the reason why it's now a museum. I spent about half an hour looking through the smallish collection of his drawings and paintings, and then spent a while hanging out on the balcony. It's right on the water!


This was definitely my "favorite" Picasso sketch I saw. It really reminded me of the things my dad used to draw during church on the back of the program. Dad, maybe there's still time for you to become a famous artist!


Right next door to the museum was this colorful cathedral. Gotta love how colorful the south of France is.


I spent most of my time in Antibes walking along the ramparts for some views of the Mediterranean and the old town.



I liked Antibes because it had an older feel than most Riviera cities I've been to. I like being able to feel the history and really feel like I'm in Europe. I'm sure I would have been content living here.






My final impression of Antibes is that you can just feel the wealth of everyone around you. I've come to notice that most cities on the Cote d'Azur are full of rich old people. We don't fit in that well.  ;)

Here's one last shot of the beach on my way back to the train station. A few people are still swimming towards the end of October. Lots of people still lay out on the beach on nice sunny days like this. The locals, however, are bundled up in their winter coats when it hits 60- just like in Israel.


My last little bit of fun in Antibes was watching a police chase in the train station. A couple of 12 year olds were being obnoxious and knocking over things (not sure if they did anything worse than that). A police officer was trying to force them to leave, but he was a slow and chubby middle-aged man who couldn't keep up with the kids. 

Do you know how funny it was to watch an incompetent French police officer swearing and huffing and trying to run after them? It was like watching Inspector Clouseau in action. The kids ended up locking themselves in the bathroom and refusing to come out. Eventually the police officer gave up and left, so I guess the kids won that battle.


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