Antibes, Côte d’Azur – la belle Vie!
Antibes is both a city and a municipality in the south-eastern part of France in the region of Côte d’Azur. Situated between Nice and Cannes, Antibes is a mondane place.
The city was founded by Greeks more than 2.500 years ago and given the name Antipolis.The city was heavily fortified, but much of the fortifications were torn down in the 1860. Today only the Fort Carré and the walls along the seafront remains.
Antibes has one of Côte d’Azur’s largest marinas where there once was a Roman harbour.
In the old days Antibes was a major fishing port but today the fisheries only supply local consumption.
Perfume also used to be a major industry based on local flowers, especially lavender, but today this production has been moved further inland to the area around Grasse.
Today the municipality of Antibes is in the Department Alpes-Maritime. It consists of the posh city of Juan-les-Pins, Golfe-Juan as well as the southern parts of Sophia Antipolis.
The city today attracts visitors from all over the world with its history, art collections. the beaches and the marina.
The Chateau Grimaldi is a gallery with a unique collection of Picassos works, made during his stay in Antibes. This collection is probably the city’s main attraction and consists of both drawings, paintings and several pieces of ceramics, more than 300 pieces all together.
Other famous people living in Antibes are the writers Victor Hugo and Graham Greene.
Greene lived the last 25 years of his life in Antibes and in the novel “Tender is the night” is set in the hotel Eden Roc on the Cap d’Antibes.
The city of Juan-les-Pins houses the famous, annual Jazzfestival, attracting a large number of worldclass artists.