Witnessing the high life
Trip Start
Apr 26, 2010
1
36
169
Trip End
Dec 02, 2010
Antibes, Provence, France
Sunday, May 30, 2010
This morning we went for a run down to the beach and into the town, which was just a couple of kms from our campsite. Antibes seems quite a small, more quiet town. There are a few small sandy beaches, but the main attraction is the marina. It's the second largest marina in Europe and the super yachts that live there are absolutely insane. Some of these people have too much money I tell you... but very cool. Hot tubs, jet skis, helicopter pads – how the other half live huh? So we had a good nosey at those and then had a look at the village. We came across a big local market, and also noted that all the bakeries were open in the morning, so there was going to be food today – haha
After some more washing we headed to Cannes which was only a 20 minute drive or so. We found a great spot by the beach to park and have lunch. Like everywhere, there are no big free carparks by the beach like in New Zealand. The same in England, even when the beach is kind of in the middle of nowhere, you still have to pay – not really encouraging people to get outside and enjoy the sunshine, although England doesn't exactly have that dilemma. Well after paying the meter, then realising it was free parking on Sundays – bugger – we walked along the beach to middle of town. The first thing I noticed was how lucky we were to be able to sit on the beach where we parked, as so many of the beaches were private – ie. Owned by the hotels and restaurants where you have to pay to go on them, although they do provide umbrellas and sun loungers. It's usually about 8-10 euros to hire and umbrella and chair for the day, which is probably not too bad if you are going to be at the beach all day, as opposed to an hour or so. It just seemed such a shame that there were so many private beaches, like it was really excluding the general person who just wanted to use the beach.
The feeling of exclusiveness continued as we walked around the promenade and the marina. Again, like Antibes, the marina contained a whole lot of expensive yachts. It was quite funny watching the older people who obviously owned some of these boats, just sitting on them in the harbour having lunch, like they wanted to show off that the yacht was theirs. Rather amusing. The streets were lined with Prada, Armani and Gucci and expensive hotels serving 25 euro starters looked over the sea. Despite the fact we couldn’t afford anything in the town, it had quite a nice relaxed atmosphere. People were just wandering around and enjoying the sunshine, it was quite nice really. We stumbled across another set of markets selling absolutely anything – second hand books, the usual souvenirs, old stamps and antiques and a whole lot of art. I'm still looking for some art to bring home, but only if it's something I would usually like, as opposed to getting caught up in all the touristy crap you can buy.
Besides strolling around the city, there wasn't a whole lot to do in Cannes. We found the red carpet from the film festival, which we had just missed by a week or so, but that was about it really. Not too bad for an afternoons outing, but not a destination to seek out, unless you can afford to eat and stay in the flash hotels – one day maybe
