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Day 13 - en route to Antibes
We set the alarm this morning for 8:30am, determined to finally make it to the hotel
breakfast.
I then left Carl at the hotel to set on a journey to get a shellac manicure (I was
getting desperate!) and after failing and then asking for directions in broken
French (hey - it's effective communication if the message is understood, which it
was!) I found a tiny salon that used NSI light cured nailpolish which is similar to
shellac. I walked back to the hotel where Carl had finished writing some emails,
postcards and had packed the car and we were ready to hit the road.
We went to Port Grimaud, a "little Venice" about 15 minutes west of Ste Maxime
(about halfway from St Tropez to Ste Maxime). We jumped on a little boat tour (€5.50
each) and explored the canals with tiny pretty attached waterfront houses. Some had
a little courtyard or even front yard, and although they were all similar in square
shape and size, they all had individual character with seemingly endless
combinations of different coloured paint, shutters and flowery plants.
After eating a Nutella (pronounced noot-ella) crepe, we began our journey to
Antibes. Compared with our long road trips of the last few days, the 1.25hour trip
was a blessing. Until we arrived. We clearly had no idea what we were getting into
when booking Antibes, I had visions of a busy Noosa summer, but Antibes actually
gives the Gold Coast a run for it's money. We arrived in the grubby and run down
city and battled the crazy traffic until at last landing in front of our hotel, the
Best Western, a block away from the beach. There was no parking to be seen so we
parked illegally in order to check in and ask where to park our car. There was a big
sign in reception stating "The Parking lot is full", and the ladies at reception
were not much more helpful, telling us there is some parking at the train station at
the end of the street, or there are street spaces. It was quite clear we would not
find a park easily, so I took our suitcases inside while Carl waited with the car,
and then together we went on a search for a parking spot. This was no easy feat, and
about half an hour (and many tiny one-way streets) later, we came across a gem of a
free spot, the only down side being it was about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.
Lucky we dropped the bags off already!
The Best Western was soon nicknamed The Worst Western, because, in order of
appearance:
1) There was no parking
2) The free wifi took about half an hour to log into, and when we finally logged in,
it logs us out every 3 minutes or so
3) There is no guarantee that the toilet will flush
4) There is no "Do not disturb sign"
The sun was beating down so we went to the beachfront, only to discover that the
beautiful stretch of beach was private, belonging to the waterfront restaurants who
had entirely covered the sand with deck chairs and umbrellas. We asked the staff at
the tourism office who pointed us to the public stretches of beach. And didn't we
feel like we were at the public stretch! This place put Bondi to shame, we could
barely find a spot to set our towels, and when we did, we realised we were in an
unofficial walkway which led people to kick sand all over us as they walked by. The
water was refreshing but full of debris and human traffic. The heat was literally
unbearable so, underwhelmed, we headed back to our hotel.
It was the first disappointment we had had on our trip so far, and unfortunately
being so close to the St Tropez debacle, it really was a let down.
Luckily, we took some time to recoup in our hotel room and dinner was not too far
away, which completely changed my view of this place.
We set outside at about 9pm and headed again to the beachfront. Now, it was cooler
and less busy, hooray! We decided on a waterfront table at Le Ruban Bleu, where we
sat sinking our toes in the sand and watching the boats on the horizon while eating
our dinner. The cost of our feast of Salade de Chèvre and hamburger was €42.
We spent the rest of the evening browsing the markets on the beachfront and the
stores on Boulevarde de President Wilson before heading back to the hotel, happily
exhausted.
Day 14- Antibes (written by Carl and Emma)
Well, today began like most in our European trip thus far- with good intentions to
wake up early, however not our alarm, our snooze or the Worst Western staff knocking
on our door (cue, no "Do Not Disturn sign) could get us up before 10:30am.
We went for a jog across to the other side of Antibes to Plage du Pontiel and Plage
de la Salis, which were less crowded and we took a dip in the inviting ocean before
jogging back past the lavish mansions - set behind high walls on cool and
contrastingly quiet streets (nothing like the Antibes we knew!)
Here, you could just imagine the glittering parties thrown by the American
millionaires that built or bought properties here in the twenties, frequented by
such people as Charlie Chaplin and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
When we got home we jumped in the car en route to Cannes to check out Isle Ste
Maguerite.
After squeezing through what seemed like our billionth scarily skinny street, Carl
exclaimed "they sure know how to make a tight street in Europe"- and he couldn't be
more right.
Cannes is a short trip from Antibes, 20 minutes with traffic, and we found a parking
station under that casino (it cost €10,40 for about 4 hours) and headed to the port.
The ferry to Isle Ste Margerhite took about 20 minutes and cost €11,50 each.
What a beautiful island! We walked the short 500m trip to Pointe du Dragon, which
opened into a shady clearing with little picnic tables cut out of wood or stone. On
one of these, we set up our pre-bought picnic of fresh baguette, camembert, Swiss
cheese, chorizo, salami and olives, and minted away with the sound of birds and
waves lapping the shore in the background. Here, a bee decided to terrorise us (it
was attracted to the Swiss cheese), and a stray cat decided watched us intently as
we ate.
Although there are no beaches on St Maguerite, it is obviously surrounded by water
and we followed the clearing to where it dropped off to a tiny protected bay,
stripped down to our boardies (Carl) and bikini (me) and took a refreshing dip.
By then it was nearly time to get the last ferry to Cannes (6pm), so we trekked back
to the tiny port and sought shelter from the sun under some shady trees until the
ferry came.
Of Cannes itself, we only really saw the port area which was huge and busy. It had a
similar atmosphere to Antibes in that it was full of traffic, crowds, shops and
restaurants. The town centre which we drove through seemed a little nicer than that
of Antibes (but that's not saying much).
We departed Cannes happy that we had made the well-worth it day trip to St
Marguerite and headed back in the direction of Antibes. On the way we decided to use
the last few hours of daylight to visit Plage de la Garope. To get there we drove
through the mansion packed cape of Antibes. Once again we were exposed to glimpses
of what was once one of the most exclusive postcodes in Europe. Long driveways,
narrow streets and beautiful vistas of the Med sea led us to the soft white sand of
Plage de la Garope. The beach was pretty, the water was clear and finally, a beach
that wasn't crowded. We had a drink to celebrate and watched the sun set.
After an action packed day of day tripping, we weren't in the mood to stray too far
from our hotel for dinner so we headed out to the Antibes waterfront. A pre-dinner
drink was in order and there was no better place to go for one than the vibrant
cocktail bar "Pam Pam". Wow! This place was a crowd stopper (literally). It was a
Tahitian style cocktail bar that was entirely dedicated to those who wanted to
indulge in cocktails whilst bopping along to cabaret style live entertainment. There
was not a vacant seat in the house and passers by would stop and stare in amazement
at the band, the dancers and at the crazy types of things the patrons were drinking
out of. For us it was a frozen pineapple filled with a punch that had enough alcohol
in it to fuel a rocket into space. It was a great experience and worth all of the
€26,90.
For dinner we shared a nice pizza and Pasta at one of the waterfront restaurants.
Once again, the food and the service didn't disappoint.
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