Category: Antibes

Bus number 10

From downtown Antibes, take bus 10. After 10-15 minutes get off at the stop F. Léger in Biot. Don’t forget to say Merci, Au Revoir to the driver as you leave the bus (the locals all do). Then walk for about 3 minutes and you will find a lovely little museum, in a park, with works by Fernand Léger, including mosaics and stained-glass windows. If you plan on having lunch there, make sure you go to the little outdoor bar early as they may run out of sandwiches!

Then go back to the bus stop to take the bus all the way up to the village itself and find for instance this door that just sits high up on a wall and take a stroll before getting on the number 10 bus towards the coast again. And may I remind you to say Merci, Au revoir to the driver when you get off.

The umbrella that thought it was a projectile

The little boy, I would say 6 years old, had just got a marvellous gift: a huge inflatable ring, brightly coloured, to bring to the beach! His parents asked to have it inflated in the shop (it was a do-it-yourself shop downtown Antibes), a procedure which took 8 minutes (yes, I timed it). The boy then couldn’t get his ring out, he was too small, the door was too narrow and the ring was too big. Eventually his parents stepped in.

Not only children have inflatable devices on the beach: people of mature age can be seen floating around on huge flamingoes. Not me though. I went to the beach with a brand new parasol, anti-uv and all. It was just that it wouldn’t stick in the ground on the pebble beach. It was also a little windy, so twice it took off at great speed towards the neighbours, scaring them greatly but causing no harm. I have now, a couple of days later, learned to harness this wild item. Or maybe is it just that the wind has calmed down?

After exhausting hours on the beach, chasing the parasol, I thought I deserved a really nice dinner, so I went to the Café Milano, to be taken care of by Luana and Davide. There are always other Swedes in this tiny restaurant when I’m there. If this is because there are lots of Swedes in Antibes, or because Swedes are particularly fond of Café Milano or because of pure coincidence, well, that I don’t know. But I don’t really believe in coincidence.

The day I accidentally did martial arts (well …)

Morning in Antibes

I arrived at the yoga studio for my first class in a couple of weeks, but discovered that the class would be replaced by a two-hour martial arts workshop. Martial arts! Me?!? What a joke! I immediately wanted to turn around and go home, but the very persuasive Caroline, the studio owner, got me to stay. I must say it was a lot of fun, but I felt more like a hippo than an agile warrior, tripping over myself while trying to do the gorilla walk, more stumbling than leaping trying out the leaping frog and looking in the wrong direction while attacking the imaginary adversary. No photos here from this event.

Evening in Juan-les-Pins

When I was a the opera a couple of weeks ago, I had followed the instructions and didn’t bring my camera, only to see that everybody else had one (see post “Orange and pink”). With this experience fresh in memory, I did bring my camera to Saturday’s Jazz in Juan-les-Pins, where I was to see Anoushka Shankar. Again it was the wrong decision: a stern security guard peered into my rucksack and of course immediately spotted my camera, the only item in it. I had to leave it in a baggage storage, where I saw a great number of motorbike helmets and one camera. And guess what? As soon as I entered there was a man, totally uninhibited and stopped by no one, standing up taking photos with a camera. I turned around and there was yet another man, holding his camera high above his head, thus clearly visible, to get the best angle. Not to mention all those taking photos and filming with their smart phones.

Anoushka Shankar did a great performance, and before her Kandace Springs delighted the audience, with a gorgeous sunset as back drop. These two photos are iPhone ones. Apologies, but now you know why.

 

And back in Antibes

Overheard in an Antibes bakery this morning:

Customer to lady behind the counter: I’m leaving my apartment. You wouldn’t happen to know someone who is looking for one?

The lady called out the question towards the inner regions of the bakery and then:

Lady: Yes, one of our bakers is indeed looking for something. Can he have your phone number?

And it seemed that that was that! An easy way to solve your housing problems!