New year in Antibes, France

Antibes, France.

Long believed to be a haven for some globally known brands like Pablo (Picasso for those who did not know his first name), Claude (Monet) to name a few, it is a spot on the Cote d'Azur or French Riviera that we happened to visit the first day of 2024.

As part of our end of year pilgrimage (to seek culture, food et al not a spiritual kind although it can be uplifting just smelling new things) to places unknown (to us anyway) we decide to spend it on the south coast of France. Along the Mediterranean sea during December is perhaps not the most ideal but it offered us a bit less crowds and not terrible weather. It rained a couple days out of 14 which is about 15% of the time so not bad at all. Hotels were also not exorbitant except for new year's.

The one day it rained we were touring a fragrance factory and came out smelling better than when we went in - so all was well.

So like I was saying, the first of Jan 2024 we were in Antibes, having come in on a local bus from Nice which was our basecamp about 10 km (6 miles) due east of it.

We were able to wander on the two sides of a peninsula. The one where the 16th century castle once home to Picasso sits along with a seawall that runs the perimeter of the village and makes for scenic views of the coast; and the other side called Juan de Pins (could not find a logical translation) but land of pines seems about it.

The latter is where we settled in for the evening, since the town had promised a fireworks show (6 pm local on Jan 1). The early show was smart not leaving families to stay awake till midnight - a seemingly random event is I think coordinated by America's marketers to sell more liquor and other paraphernalia to the non thinking types for what is just another point in space of our village spinning round the sun.

The food we enjoyed was from local Boulangerie (not to be confused w lingerie) / patisserie which was made of a tuna and olive topped pizza slice, a flaky sandwich like product filled w tomato, onion, peppers and a piece of cake.

We snacked on lot of Corsica clementines the whole time in France. Yum.

As far as the walking in Antibes and surrounds it is cobbled alleyways, narrow dead ends and very old limestone buildings - many colorful and now offering BnB options to toursits.

The evening started with a local band walking down the street playing local tunes and ended with a memorable firework display.