Antibes, Biot and Haut-de-Cagnes

Happy 1-week anniversary to us! David drove like a rock star again today and I’m clearly fighting a losing battle with a cold. We did brekke outside again today – Yolande made a delicious ‘escargot pastry’ last night for us- its dense round dough swirled like a cinnamon bun.

We drove to our favorite beach so far in Antibes. This town has always an active port for trading along the Mediterranean. It was a Greek fortified town named Antipolis in the 5th century BC, and later a Roman town. We found a nice little plage to hang out on, sit in the sunshine and admire the amazing views of old Antibes.




We went in the water for a bit and took some pictures before rinsing off and driving through the tree-lined roads along the coastline of the Cap d'Antibes. We had a forgettable lunch of pizza at Don Camillos and walked around the old city and port. Today, the Port Vauban is the largest marina in Europe. We learned that Napoléon Bonaparte moved to Antibes with his family in 1794, and was responsible for the defense of the coast. When Robespierre fell, Napoléon was imprisoned in the nearby Fort Carré.

Then it was on to the village of Biot, a very picturesque and popular 15th century hilltop village- it was actually built atop an old volcano. It has been a source of pottery since antiquity due to the region’s soil which is rich in fine clays and volcanic tufa for making the kilns. Today however, Biot is most renowned for its glassworks, clear and colored glass with little bubbles.





We walked into a few of the glassworks factories and galleries around the outskirts of the village watching the artisans make incredible vases, lamps and bowls. We wish we could have purchased some of the beautiful glasswork- but there’s no way we would have gotten it home to Maryland intact, so we bought a small glass ring for me. Then we walked through the town and learned that Biot was conquered 2,000 years ago by the Romans, followed by the Knights Templar and Knights of Malta in the 13th century. It was destroyed by war soon after, but in the late 15th century, it was reconstructed by some Italian families.

After that, we started to drive into the village of Haut-de-Cagnes, a picturesque 14th century town located atop some very steep and twisty roads leading to the hilltop village, but we quickly decided it was not a good idea to drive through these streets. So we backed down and parked the car at a nearby cemetery and walked through its narrow and flowery paths. The city had great views of the Mediterranean.



After a while in Haut-de-Cagnes, we went back to the B&B, freshened up and finally made it to dinner at Le Relais des Coches (where we had tried to go for David’s birthday) where we watched the France/England match in the world cup semi final. England won and the French and Aussies were pissed. Apparently it wasn’t a good match stylistically as well as in outcome. I feel stuffy and don’t care all that much about Rugby. I’m going to bed.