My friend, Barbara, came down from Paris yesterday to join me for 4 more days in Antibes. A friend of hers said she must walk the Presque Isle. We couldn’t figure out where that was but assumed it had to be part of Cap d’Antibes. So this morning, we packed up our lunches, put on walking shoes and walked towards the Cap. After about 2 1/2hrs, we found ourselves at the crossroads of Blvd de la Garoupe and Ave Mrs.L.D. Beaumont. Barbara’s guidebook said there were some beautiful gardens to be seen. So we made a plan to find the gardens first and then walk down to the Villa Eilenroc and follow the sentier (footpath) around the tip of Cap d’Antibes heading east and then back towards Antibes.
We never did find gardens, at least the kind we were looking for. In fact, the Villa looked very untended and a bit sad. It is probably looking for new owners. But there were plenty of coves that were full of people having picnics, swimming (this is December 28th, guys!), sailing and having a wonderful time.
We wound our way around the Villa and found the Sentier. Everybody and their dog were out for a walk. It was a beautiful warm day and the French love to walk. The Sentier turned out to be quite challenging. Up steep steps, down steep steps, across rocks with no path–just follow the person in front of you.
We had been walking 5 1/2 hrs when, finally finishing the sentier, we came to a road. Our choices were to beg a ride off someone, find out if a bus existed, find a taxi or walk another 2 hours back to Antibes. My Uber app kept telling me there was no good connection. I suspect there aren’t many Uber drivers down in this part of the Riviera. So we managed to find the only hotel that seemed to be open and the manager called a taxi for us. As we drove back towards Antibes, the sky turned an amazing pink, the water reflected the pink, the sand and rocky shore all looked pink–it was a bath of pink. And both of us were too tired to take a picture. You just have to take my word for it.
We arrived back in Antibes just as dark fully descended and all the lights came on in the town to greet us. It was an absolutely perfect day.
I will leave you with one of Barbara’s photos of a cove at the villa.
A bientôt,
Sara
Out My Window 