here
are several beautiful sandy beaches within easy walking
distance of Les Trois Palmes and the nearest
- Plage de la Gravette - is just five minutes
stroll through the streets of the Old Town.
They
are all fine sand, clean and well-maintained, and
often with facilities such as showers. Bars and refreshments
will never be far away.
Unlike
the waters at many resorts around Europe, the Mediterranean
Sea at Antibes is quite warm almost throughout the
year, and it is pleasant to swim even through to
November.
But
it is perhaps the colour and the vistas across that
water that makes it truly memorable (and
gives the area its name of Azure Coast).
Beaches
in many places on the Cote d'Azur are almost exclusively
private or require you to pay hefty charges for you
to use them. This is not the case for Antibes. The
beaches in and around Antibes are very largely free
and fully accessible to the public.
Where
there are bars actually on the beach, you will of
course be expected to buy a drink to use that stretch
of sand. But even if it does cost a bit more than
average, it is still well worth it to sip a cold
beer and gaze out over that deep blue sea.
The nearest beach to Les Trois Palmes, Plage
de la Gravette,
nestles under the old fortifications of the town and is just five minutes
away on foot. Here the water is well sheltered and
shallow and the bottom shelves
gently so it is ideal for children.
|
Salis
beach |
The other beaches, Le
Ponteil and Le
Salis, are a 15-minute stroll along narrow,
quaint streets with flower bedecked houses, past ancient
monuments and along the ancient walls with stunning views
of the coast and across the mediterranean to the Alps
as a distant backdrop.
All
are public and therefore free, and only really get
crowded in the height of summer.
|
Today
in Antibes
|
What
makes the Cote d'Azur so popular is, of course,
the weather. This can be described as truly temperate.
Antibes has pleasantly warm summers and mild
winters. Autumn starts late and spring early,
so it hardly gets 'cold' at all. Even in mid-winter,
the warm sun means you can still sit outside.
(Though people still talk about 1986, when they
had snow!) Equally, the summers are not
blisteringly hot. Unlike other mediterranean
places further south, it can seldom be described
as unbearably hot. Temperatures rise to about
30°C, though the mid-twenties is more typical.
For a forecast for the next few days, click here |
|