To be honest, I did not know that much about the town before we came a few days ago for our hiking trip on the French Riviera, much less…
… the beaches and billionaires of Antibes.
We had been here some years ago on a daytrip, a half-day trip to be precise, while staying in Cannes. It was a mere 5 minutes or so away by train – which is probably why I remembered Antibes as a suburb of Cannes. Antibeians will probably want to kill me now.
In fact, Antibes is the bigger of the two cities (if not by much), far older than Cannes – with a history that reaches back more than 2000 years to the ancient Greeks – and far prettier, too.
There, I said it. Now the people from Cannes will probably want to kill me, too. (How to win friends and upset people – in only two brief paragraphs.)
Many people probably know Antibes for its Picasso museum, the product of a brief liaison (Picasso stayed in the city for only 6 months), which was nevertheless intense and fruitful, for both sides eventually (Picasso donated more than 20 paintings to the city, and his heirs added some more after his death).
The museum is housed in the gruesomely medieval Palais Grimaldi, formerly the property of the Princes of Monaco.
Next door, you can visit the 18th century Cathedral …
… and pass through the picturesque Marché Provencal …
… en route to explore the small but beautiful Old Town…
… or the Fort Carré, a 17th century military fortress built by Vauban, probably the most famous military engineer of all time.
What makes Antibes really unique, however, has little to do with old buildings or modern art.
The Beaches and Billionaires of Antibes
Antibes has one of the world’s largest harbour for luxury yachts, and since the harbour is freely accessible to everybody, you can observe from the pier how the yachts are cleaned, prepared for a journey – or for an on-board party. (The really big yachts are moored a little outside the Vieux Port proper, along the Quai de la Grande Plaisance.)
The owner of this one, for example, seemed to plan something special for the night, the bateau separé, at any rate, had already been set up, it seemed, for une petite escapade.
Antibes is also the home port for one of the world’s largest and most famous yachts, the Kingdom 5KR, originally built for Adnan Khashoggi and later owned by the Sultan of Brunei and Donald Trump. (It now belongs to a Saudi prince.) The ship was also used in the Bond movie Never Say Never Again where it is called the Flying Saucer.
Recently, it became the subject of headlines all over the world again, when Roman Abramovich was denied entry into Antibes harbour – the only place where his Eclipse, the largest yacht in the world, could have moored. It was already occupied by the Kingdom 5KR, so the Russian billionaire …
… had to park his vessel out at sea (the white one behind the beach: that’s the Eclipse). There are, it seems, other things that money cannot buy, apart from love and happiness.
And if you are one of those people who like to get their Christmas shopping done early, long before the rush sets in, Antibes harbour may have something to inspire you.
Wouldn’t this be just the right gift for someone you truly love?
Yes, I know what you are going to say: it doesn’t have a helipad. But then again: Roman’s Eclipse has two, and did it do it any good?
