bienvenue au cote

i just returned from a lovely two days on the cote! I visited Antibes on Sunday morning, and Cannes today! Antibes was absolutely amazing. lots and lots of impressionist artists came to cap d'antibes to be inspired! everywhere you look there are plaques showing a famous painting, indicated that someone painted in that exact spot! although it was raining and yucky out on Sunday, we went to the market and got a picnic lunch of tapenade, cheese, bread, and fruit and ate it under the umbrella. the beach was so beautiful, and vielle ville was gorgeous as well. it made me think of bermuda (although i've never been there, so who knows). On saturday night we walked back into the residential area of antibes - which was AMAZING! the flowers and plants were so pretty, and the houses were absolutely amazing. it was very quiet, with no restaurants or stores - just the houses and the sea! our hostel away from the town center, and was run by paulo - this friendly old man who ran the beautiful pink building facing the ocean. although the bathroom/shower/cot situation was bare minimum, there was TONS of young kids from all over europe and australia bumming around looking for work on the yachts that passed through antibes, cannes, monaco, etc. it was a great atmosphere because everyone was poor and living out of their backpacks, but so generous to fellow travelers! the boys were "lifting weights" outside using the picnic benches, and we all had a communal dinner together. after dinner me and my friend walked to nearby juan les pins, which had AMAZING beaches. we sat on some unused cabanas and watched the sunset! afterwards we were looking for a place to get a drink, but of course it was really expensive. we were talking to some french people our age about how expensive everything was, and they replied "bienvenue au cote". welcome to the riviera!

we ended up going to this funky place where they had live music. the guy playing the guitar was really nice and we had fun singing with them. they said we are welcome back anytime! we woke up this morning and paulo made us some coffee for breakfast. then we were off to cannes! cannes had beautiful beaches, but it was really expensive and not much to see. it is famous for the film festival, but other than the building where it takes place it is just designer stores and high class restaurants. we walked into the most expensive hotel in cannes and went exploring! we can pretend...

my camera ran out of batteries, but i found some pictures online to share. the map is cool, because where the square is is the center of Antibes, but our hotel was on the southern tip. there was a really cool lighthouse on the southern tip, it reminded me of our family adventures to cape may! on the west was juan les pins, where we went sunday night. you can walk from juan les pins to antibes center in 45 minutes. obviously, i LOVED cap d'antibes and would work there on a yacht ANYDAY.