1/19/23 Antibes, Castellane, Cannes and the French Rivera

Greetings from beautiful, but a little chilly, Antibes and the South of France.

Tour guide Cindy has been keeping us busy with trips in the area and walking the beautiful city of Antibes. Let’s recap what we’ve seen.

Roadside view, route of Napoleon over the alps when returning to Paris after his exile.

We are not fond of driving in the French Rivera, the area is very hilly and the roads very narrow and crowded. Cars are parked wherever they can, and the French drive like maniacs, not a good combination.

So, when we decided to take the famous “Route of Napoleon” from Antibes to Castellane in the Alps we decided to do it on Sunday morning, the lightest traffic day of the week, by far.

Napoleon returned from exile, and returned, and returned to Nice hoping to be welcomed but, he was turned out. So he and his army of 1,200 set out to climb the Alps in six days. Quite a feet.

The Route of Napoleon is now a hiking, biking, motorcycle riding, and outdoors retreat for the French. Beautiful scenery and very rugged mountains.

Castellane where the route crests in the Alps.

Castellane is very quiet in the winter, especially with no snow👍

We had heard of a famous Rotisserie family in the area, so we stopped by on the return trip home. Delicious chicken, stuffed with rosemary and garlic, marinated in Olive oil with fingerling potatoes, delicious.

Monday and Tuesday we had a storm pass through the area, high winds and some rain. In the south of France, that means full subzero clothing. Hats, gloves and definitely scarfs😜

French Rivera with fresh snow on the Alps

Being from the PNW, a little weather never stops us, 25,000 steps daily 👊

Of course you must visit the lovely French bakery every day👍✔️😜🇫🇷

Wednesday we took the bus to the world famous destination, Cannes.

Above is the world famous Cannes film festival sight. It’s right on the water and used for many purposes. But, it’s home to the rich and famous one week a year.

Beautiful harbor and historic area, unbelievable amount of yachts, billions of dollars worth.

Cannes from the top of the hill, very beautiful.

As we said earlier, a big storm passed threw a few days ago, so the beach clubs were busy cleaning up.

For fun Cindy and I love to look at menus in fancy restaurants. Just FYI, a burger, fries and a beer at the beach club in Cannes €90.

Cannes is very, very upscale. Every brand in the world has a shop here. It’s France and fashion is huge.

We saw this sign in one of hundreds of Coiffure shops. Poor Kim Kardashian, her setup is the cheapest.

Back to Antibes for another day with a short driving tour around the Cap d’ Antibes and the Thursday market. I’m sure at least 15,000 steps also.

Bocce ball is life in the south of France.

We’re moving tomorrow about an hour east to Villefranche-Sur-Mer, outside of Nice. Our friends Jim and Jill from Portland are joining us for a week.

Au revoir for now!

3 thoughts on “1/19/23 Antibes, Castellane, Cannes and the French Rivera”

Tom says:

January 19, 2023 at 3:23 pm

Amazing photos and great dialogue of all ur views and stops!

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1. mtrafton55 says:
  
  January 19, 2023 at 3:31 pm
  
  Fantastic place, the south of France
  
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Linda says:

January 19, 2023 at 8:47 pm

I would always stop at this bocce area and sit on the bench with the old men on my way home from the daily grocery shopping. I loved watching them play.

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