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Oh là là Côte d’Azur

Piggybacking on Laurie's business trip to Sophia Antipolis (who could resist, right?), hence will make our HQs in Antibes.
Truly looking forward to explore as much as we can, and of course Mangez bien, riez souvent, aimez beaucoup :)
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  • Inicio del viaje
    14 de septiembre de 2023
  • UA Club Terminal C

    14 de septiembre de 2023, Estados Unidos ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F

    Of course the one right next to my gate is under construction so I had to hoof it up to the one by Gate 123...which is still OK
    In any case, past TSA (Prev does help) and firmly ensconced myself here for the next 6 hours...
    Well, again "Mangez bien".. 😆
    And a beautiful view of Manhattan skyline
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  • Welcome to Nice

    15 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☀️ 73 °F

    Breezed through the passport control and found my bus relatively easy.
    On my way to Antibes

  • Our Apartment

    15 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F

    We took a leisurely walk through some streest of old city to our apartment, which is located on a "Typical European Mediterranean street".
    It's a 1BR apartment with a kitchen...although I'm not sure how much cooking we'll be doing here. In any case, it's quite cozyLeer más

  • Viex Carre - Old Town Antibes

    15 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F

    After taking a bit of rest and much needed shower, we spent the early evening wandering the streets and squares of the Old Town - which is where our apt is.
    Antibes is a very old town, first founded by Ancient Greeks in V century B.C., then the Romans took over...and so it went the way European cities go.
    Look at them tomatoes and some Gelato 😋
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  • Bastion St. Jaume

    15 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    We made our way to Bastion St. Jaume, which is remnants of ol time city walls protecting the town and Port Vauban - old Port of Antibes.
    After having housed a temple and then a chapel in Roman times, a fortified tower was built at Saint-Jaume which was to be completely destroyed in the 17th century. A few decades later, the Bastion Shipyard was built here, where Captain Cousteau's famous ship Calypso was kitted out. The shipyard closed in 1985.
    Destroyed because it had fallen into disuse, the building gave way to a vast area highlighting the famous fortified remains of the curtain wall, beautifully renovated.
    The centerpiece of one area is a sculpture by Barcelonian artist Jaume Plensa entitled "Nomade".
    Of course crazy amount of various boats and yachts, incl. What I dubbed "A Billionaires Row" 😁
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  • Dinner, well sort of

    15 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    Returning back to old town. We didn't really feel like a "full" dinner and decided instead on some yummy Gelato.
    And so ended our first day in Antibes

  • Amour Café

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F

    Had a very nice and relaxing sleep which was needed after full 1.5 days of travel.
    Waking up and looking for a place to have some petit-déjeuner came upon this place.
    Right around the corner from us, over 1K reviews with 4.9/5 average.... and who can resist the name, right?
    It did not disappoint. Great friendly service and a good simple breakfast that hit the spot.
    Petit Formule includes freshly squeezed OJ, toast (yeah... toasted fresh French bread 🥖) with butter and jam and coffee (Laurie opted for Capuccino, while I - quand en France, oui,? 😇 - Café au Lait)
    Yum yum 😋 😋 😋
    ... and we got hearts (appropriately) in our coffees....
    We might make it the breakfast place for duration!
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  • Market Provençal

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    Finishing with breakfast we set off to visit a museum and passed the famous Marché Provençal on the way...
    ....er... Methinks I'll let the pictures do the talking.
    All I know is that it would drive some of our friends crazy... it does us 😉😍Leer más

  • Walk along Promenade Amiral de Gasse

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    A beautiful walk on The Promenade. For History nuts like me, it is named after François Joseph Paul, Comte de Grasse, Marquis of Grasse-Tilly (13 September 1722 – 11 January 1788), who was a career French officer who achieved the rank of admiral. He is best known for his command of the French fleet at the Battle of the Chesapeake in 1781 in the last year of the American Revolutionary War. It led directly to the British surrender at Yorktown and helped gain the rebels' victory.
    That said, it is ONE WINDY place to walk, we had to hold our hats in hands most of the time. As we were sauntering towards the Picasso Museum, I noticed a building where, turned out, Nicolas de Staël lived and died. (The tablet attests to the fact). De Staël born Nikolai Vladimirovich Stael von Holstein (Russian: Николай Владимирович Шталь фон Гольштейн) in Saint Petersburg, Russia in 1914. (His father, Russian Lieutenant General, Baron Vladimir Stael von Holstein was the last Commandant of the Peter and Paul Fortress). Family emigrated in 1919 because of the Russian Revolution.
    Stael became a painer and was known for his use of a thick impasto and his highly abstract landscape painting. He also worked with collage, illustration, and textiles.
    Then right by The Picasso Museum, we came upon an old... yeah...lol I can say THAT again... Roman Cistern!!! 😮
    Granted, you can't see much, but still...
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  • Picasso Museum

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    The Château Grimaldi was originally built in the late fourteenth century as the residence of the town's feudal lords Marc and Luc Grimaldi, scions of the famous Grimaldi Dynasty, and has borne their name ever since.(Yes, think Monaco, Prince Reineir and Grace Kelly!!!). Picasso lived here for 6 months in 1946. He and his 2nd wife bequeathed number of works to the museum. Today the collection totals 245 works by Pablo Picasso, incl. “La Joie de vivre“, “Satyr, Faun and Centaur with Trident“, “Still life with owl and three sea urchins“, “The Woman with the sea urchins” and “She-Goat“.
    In my shots below you can see his paintings of a fisherman, some nudes and glazed pottery.
    An unexpected surprise was to stumble upon Michaelangelo's Dying Slave & Rebellious Slave, on the loan from The Louvre.
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  • Museum Courtyard

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    Various sculptures on display and beautiful view of Mediterranean
    Also, I forgot to mention that today was a freebie entrance day for museums, so we got lucky. You can see the line qued in when we walked out.
    We are also glimpse the plaza and arches in front of The Cathedral (next footprint)
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  • Antibes Cathedral

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    Official name: Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Immaculée-Conception d'Antibes or Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Platea d'Antibes.
    Of course, Wikipedia provides great information; check it out at
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antibes_Cathedral
    My photos include beautiful carved walnut front doors with St.Sebastian and St.Roch ( high in Reverence by Camino Pilgrims- Blow up the image and notice Pilgrim's Hat, staff and shells on cloak), Joseph with Baby Jesus, St.Antony of Padua, St.Peter, Sacred Coer of Jesus, St.Anne, thePieta and.... Alexander Suvorov...?...🤔... (LOL not really, some Bishop, but the resemblance is there, so I couldn't resist 😉)
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  • More streets of Old Town

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 79 °F

    We continued meandering on the streets of Old Town, eventually making to The Garden of Poets with a small bust of Victor Gugo that has his Homge to the Antibes:
    "Everything here shines, everything blooms, everything sings, the sun, the woman, the love are here at home, I still have the resplendence in my eyes and in my soul”.
    The cacti were in the bloom, so I snapped couple of pictures
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  • Le Petite Lunch

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    As we walked through the streets, many servers started hustling folks sitting outside to inside. Although it was pretty much the same overcast as it has been since morning, we figured they know what they are doing, so we decided to go back to the apartment and have some lunch. We did right, because about 3mins after we walked in, it started to rain...
    So here is our little lunch:
    Vin Rose, baguette, pommes avec Chamembert
    C'est seeemple, no?😉😂😍
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  • Archeological Museum

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F

    We can see clearly now - the rain is gone.
    And so we sashayed (after 14:00 the French don't saunder, so we follow the suit 😉) to the Archeological Museum which turned to be like 100 meters from Jardin des Poets (actually if you go back to that footprint and zoom you will see the old stone wall straight ahead - that's where the museum is).
    And yes, this one was also free today (we didn’t complain).

    Created in 1963, Musée d'archéologie d'Antibes is located at Bastion Saint-André, a military stronghold built by Vauban in the late XVII century. Its two vaulted galleries are home to the Antibes’ permanent archaeological collection, made up of objects excavated both on land and in the sea. It has allowed us to reconstruct the history of the town during Antiquity as well as the history of Ligurian, Greek, and Roman populations who have left their mark on Antibes.
    Ancient Roman artifacts, coins & other historic finds on display in a snug seaside fort-museum.
    No, these are NOT Roman toilets. This is a double oven.
    The part of water Aqueduct outside is also cool.
    The 1st photo shows some artifacts going back to Etruscans, then Greeks, Greek colony, and finally Romans from the conquer into Pax Romana.
    Some Stella's bear marks of Titus Flavius Valerius... with a name like this, I would SWEAR that there has to be a connection to Flavia Dynasty but could not peg it conclusively.
    The amphora are neat, some of them are from Africa.
    And,sorry, but NO again, it is not a Roman Jacuzzi but an inner courtyard fountain. I ran into a similar one on Camino shortly after Fonfria (Cassie, you getting this?)
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  • By the walls of Bastion Saint Andre

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F

    We came out on the other side of the Bastion to see more Roman ruins, a small dog park, and a back terrace of The Golden Beef restaurant (we skipped that one). We then continued on the old ramparts to another small square with a monument to Albert 1st of Belgium wo popularly referred to as Knight King
    Dutch: Koning-Ridder, French: Roi-Chevalier) or ( as the case here)
    Soldier King (Dutch: Koning-Soldaat, French: Roi-Soldat) in reference to his role during World War I.
    The weather remained overcast and the sea churning
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  • British/ French monument

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 75 °F

    Intrigued by both British and French flags flying we made our way past the end of the parapet to that monument. Turned out this was to commemorate the act of HMS Unbroken (P42) - Royal Navy U-class submarine. Commissioned in January 1942, she spent most of her wartime career in the Mediterranean. She landed saboteurs under the command of Captain Peter Churchill at Antibes - hense the monument at the place if landing. She then proceeded to Malta to reform the 10th Flotilla in June 1942.
    As Fate would have it, Unbroken was transferred on loan to the Soviet Union on 26 June 1944, where she was renamed V-2 (Cyrillic: В-2). Sailing under Soviet flag, she sank the German submarine chaser UJ-1220 on 12 October 1944. She spent four years in Soviet service before being returned to the Royal Navy in 1949. She was scrapped at Gateshead from 9 May 1950.
    We spent some time watching the windsail surfers and checked out a square in the Modern section of Antibes, which was perhaps 3-4 blocks from "our neighborhood"
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  • Le Very Happy Hour

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 77 °F

    ..and what luck it may be, that we got into the neighborhood shortly after The Happy Hour started. 😊😉😇🍷🧉
    Technically I could say Le Petit - Happy Hours ARE petit by nature no matter how long they last.
    We firmly ensconced ourselves in front of L'Ardoise, which actually is a Creperie... but no matter... and happily partook in monitoring (Laurie) and Apresol (moi).
    We won't go into details on how Happy we got, but we had a GRAND time people watching as well as these 2 Norwegian cats in the window across us.
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  • Le Petit Dinner

    16 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ⛅ 75 °F

    Yeah... looks like Du Jour de Le Petites...
    We had an inkling of stopping at Lyonese Charcuterie, but Happiness is a Fickle thing and time (which is too slow for thise who wait) turned "too fast" for us inasmuch as we forgot about closing time and appeared at the door only to see the place getting closed.
    We had to resort to Plan B which resulted in picking ip some provisions, taking them to the apartment and our dinner consisting of baguette avec charcuterie de poulet et tomate for Laurie, charcuterie de jambon et tomate for me, complemented by Tomme Corsica - new cheese we picked up earlier, very reminiscent of Manchego, but milder.
    Desert consisted of some yummy cookies from pâtisserie and some fruit - Des Raisins Italiens et une grosse Pomme Fuji.
    ...
    And there was morning and there was Evening. Day 2

    Bon Nuit 🌃😴
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  • Bon Jour and back to L' Ardoise

    17 de septiembre de 2023, Francia ⋅ ☁️ 73 °F

    Sometimes, it is quite tough to be in a foreign country with different customs. 😕
    We really wanted to go back to Cafe Amore, but they were not opening until 10:00am...and so, for that matter of fact, many other eateries.
    However, l'Ardoise was open, so we stopped there. My (not so) French wife ABSOLUTELY FORBADE me to eat crepes for breakfast because one dies NOT eat crepes from breakfast in France.
    So we did just fine with a slightly simpler fare than yesterday: OJ (not freshly squeezed), croissant, and Cappuccino un Cafe au Lait with small sweet biscuit cookies.
    🎵No sugar today in my coffee, no sugar tonight in my tea🎵... er...nohearts in our coffees either 😒
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