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Why do you think these beaches look uncrowded in
Summer?
Biot
The beaches are as good as most along the Cote d'Azur
at Menton, Nice, Cagnes Sur Mer, and Villeneuve Loubet:
pebbly. You can have a good holiday there. However, we would not produce
a website about merely ordinary beaches . . .
:-)
(photo from brochure)
It's near Antibesland, Marineland, a wonderful
tourist waterworld. In the centre of the photograph you can see the
ancient towers of the old Fort and town whilst on the left you can
see the Peninsula of the beautiful
Cap d'Antibes.
La Fontonne
La Fontonne region of Antibes (east end) in the South
of France offers lots of cheap accommodation. The pebble beach is
sandwiched between the open sea, a main road and the railway line.
In the distance, 2km away, you can see the
Fort Carre of Antibes
ANTIBES
where you can truly relax!
The beach at Vieil Antibes and
Port Vauban: Plage de La Gravette
The Old Antibes beach which small, sandy, pleasant (but can be
crowded), faces west into the sun. What is particularly nice about
the beach is that it is sheltered from waves by a small breakwater
and this enclosure makes it particularly safe for children.
Antibes Plage du Ponteil and Plage de La Salis
The Le Salis beach is another 1.5 km further on - good, very big
and crowded in the very height of season.
The Cap d'Antibes is
the West end of Antibes.
Property there is very
expensive and exclusive - many places there have security gates etc
etc and most property owners do not bother to rent out their houses.
Just imagine surveying this view towards
Nice at Easter
The Garoupe beach on the Cap d'Antibes is very posh! It is
sheltered from the wind and it faces east, so you are not looking
into the sun, except at sunrise for your 6.30am dip in August. Just
imagine waking up to this! If you want to do so on your holiday then
email the
webmaster@antibes.co.uk!
Sunrise at Plage de la Garoupe
It has restaurants along it and paid beach chair spaces with a
public section in the middle.
Plage Joseph is really good fun for children in teh
Summer and the Petit Plage has shallow warm water and interesting
rocks to play around.
The beach is divided into sections, two of which are public non-paying. But the others are good value and an enormous amount of work goes into cleaning away the incredible amounts of seaweed that accumulate over the winters and keeping it clean during the season.
At the end of the beach is Plage Joseph with the yellow Keller beach next door. Lots of people go there, especially people wanting to see people who want to be seen. Quieter La Joliette is in the middle with two sandy public sections each side. The people there are very nice, friendly and jolly. At the end of the main part is Le Rocher, which for food is my favourite with Monsieur Crampe's Crepes. Just around the corner is Petite Plage which is my favourite place to swim and has the best value mattresses and parasols as well. Slightly up the hill is the smartest place of all, the Garoupe Beach Restaurant
If you are coming to the Riviera on your boat or yacht, anchor in the bay and ring up any of these restaurants and they will collect you.
(Taken at Easter 2001)
Plage Keller serves wonderful food and is associated
with Cesar's Restaurant. They do wonderful evening events, parties and
wedding celebrations.
(All the above photos were taken with a Canon A5, A50
or S10 digital camera except where indicated - the many of the photos
below were scanned in from conventional photos)
This is the public section in the middle
Everyone knows everyone there because it is small and it has a
very "village" atmosphere. A lot of people meet for lunch at one of
the restaurant places.
You can walk up and down and swim across all of the privately
operated beach chaise/ umbrella/ food places and no-one minds.
The yacht owners anchor in the bay and swim into the beach
or the rocky coves for the day.
The car park has a greater concentration of Mercs and Rolls Royces
than you've ever seen before and there will be bronzed Italian ladies
there who have been browning themselves every day at the same places
since June.
But it's one of the only places with real sand to be enjoyed by
children
For holiday accommodation the Cap is probably expensive but
well worth it if you can find it. I might
best describe it in terms of the whole of the
coast having been developed under concrete to a varying degree
but leaving the Cap still wooded with trees in
which Grasshoppers / Crickets make their characteristic noise. If you
want to rent an apartment or two, the
webmaster knows of local
accommodation or can put you in touch with agents. If you want to buy
a property in the area you
might also email the
webmaster@antibes.co.uk
From a path next to the Garoupe beach you can walk around theHeadland on a picturesque but very rocky path. There is a notice at the entrance which warns : Longueur du Parcours 2700m. PASSAGES DIFFICILES. ATTENTION! ACCES DANGEREUX PAR COUP DE MER. BE CAREFUL
DANGEROUS PATH BY ROUGH SEA. TEMPS MOYENS 1H.
In fact it is likely to take much longer than oneHour. DO NOT DO THIS WALK IN THE EVENING! There is no path at the
other end
and you have to clamber over rocks over which
considerable quantities of water splashes.
You end up near
Eilen Roc and the wonderful
rock coast there:
(The above 8 photographs were taken with
a Canon A5 digital camera)
If you want relaxation away from such wildness you can go to the
Eden Roc restaurant you can spend the day
there by the pool there for around 25 pounds per day . . .
On the West side of the Cap, facing Juan and Cannes there is the
Plage des Ondes, beach of waves. Need I say more? There's about 2m of
sand between the wall and the water and hardy souls like it.
But there's a ruined tower in the sea that children like to
play upon. More photos after next summer!
