Our trip from Aix to Antibes was supposed to be simple: throw our backpacks in an Uber, hustle over to the TER (read: commuter rail) station, get our tickets, walk 5 minutes to the bus station, take the bus 6 minutes from Aix center to the Aix TGV station, and hop on the TGV for the 4-hour ride to Antibes.
Naturally it didn’t work out that way.
It takes us about an hour to get all of our stuff packed and the AirBnB cleaned up (gotta preserve that pristine guest rating, dontchyaknow?) so we usually give ourselves 90 minutes.
The day we departed Aix we packed and cleaned without incident, said au revoir to our favorite apartment of the trip so far (we still love that place) and jumped in our Uber. The trip to the TER station was quick, we got our tickets without incident, and shouldered our packs for the walk to the bus station.
And that’s where the road got a bit bumpy. But we held it together, and we’re proud that we did.
Ooo baby let’s, let’s stay togetheeeeerrrrrr….
First, as soon as we left the TER station Braeden started complaining. Normally I get a bit annoyed when he starts whining when we’re just tooling around town, but on travel days when I’m carrying my pack, his pack, and my day pack, I get positively salty.
So poor Juliann had to navigate us to the bus station on foot with her iPhone all the while listening to Braeden and I bark at each other. It wasn’t enjoyable for any of the parties involved.
And as we’ve learned from our time in Europe, when someone tells us it’s going to take 5 minutes to walk to our destination, we automatically multiply their estimate by 3. So we walked 15 minutes on a very hot morning with full loads and a whining toddler to the bus station. We were still on schedule, however, so I was in good spirits even though two-thirds of the Blew family was in full combat mode.
We arrived at the bus station, found our bus, and sat down. Our butts had no sooner touched the bench when J exclaimed with alarm, “Oh, no, I lost my scarf!”
I’m your typical guy so I wasn’t sure to which piece of clothing she was referring. She has a white cotton scarf, a lavender-colored-thingy (which probably isn’t lavender at all…I mentioned I’m a guy, right? Plus I’m a bit color-challenged) and a black-and-white striped piece she got from Lulu Lemon.
We had a good twenty minutes until our bus departed, so she went to grab a croissant for her and the boy and look for her scarf. She returned a short time later with the croissants but without the scarf, and she was devastated. It was the Lulu Lemon scarf that was lost, an item that she used every day in various ways, and the fatigue of the morning’s travel combined with the loss of a favored friend was too much.
“Mommy, don’t be said, I’ll get you a new scarf,” piped up Braeden helpfully.
Juliann smiled sadly and hugged our son. Then we boarded the bus, a bit down but still on time.
Traffic, however, was against us, and the 6 minute trip turned into 15, and as we only had 12 minutes to transfer I started getting nervous. So did our fellow passengers. As soon as the bus hit the Aix TGV station we all clambered out, frantically grabbed our luggage, and ran. I was carrying two packs, my messenger bag, and Juliann’s rolling luggage and must have looked ridiculous running through the tiny station. J had Braeden by the hand, hurrying along behind. As we sprinted up the stairs to cross to the train platform we saw the TGV slowly pull away, and we stopped.
I grinned, sweating profusely, shrugged my shoulders, and said, “Ok, to the ticket booth.”
We walked back down, rebooked our tickets, and then hopped on the next train 30 minutes later. No harm, no foul. Well, almost. Because we got a deal on the original tickets the difference in price between our train and the next was almost double, so we had to pay the difference.
We were just happy to be on a comfy train. And we made a memory that will stay with us for a long time.
The French Riviera
A few hours later we were in Antibes, and we easily found our apartment just a few minutes’ walk from the train station. The apartment was clean, spacious and best of all, had a wraparound balcony with a view of Port Vauban, a beautiful harbor brimming with superyachts.
We unpacked, hit the local Monoprix for some short-term groceries, then headed out for a bite to eat at a pub we’d read about in Fodor’s called The Blue Lady.
I’m not sure what it says about us, but in France our favorite places have been English pubs. The Blue Lady was no different, and we felt at home as soon as we settled into a high-top table out on the patio. We ordered some snacks, a couple of Mojitos, and a glass of cold milk, and we let the day’s travels seep out of our bones. The food was delicious and the Mojitos were perfect. We would be back at The Blue Lady again, no question.
Antibes turned out to be beautiful, but a little harder on us than our previous destinations. Old Town was a longer walk away than we were accustomed to, as was Monoprix and the playground. This made every day a bit more taxing on the boy – and by extension us – but we tried, as best we could, to be patient with each other. It didn’t always work, but we tried to get a little better each day.
Beach Bums
What we were really excited about was the beaches. We knew there was a beach only a few minutes’ walk away and we envisioned going there every day and playing with the boy.
As you can probably guess, that ain’t how it went.
Soon after arriving in Antibes, on a day we had spent exploring and doing errands, we ended up back at the apartment hot, sweaty, and tired. We decided to take a walk to the beach for “a quick dip”, as it’s known on my side of the family, so we threw some towels, water, and sunblock in our daypack, changed into our suits, and took the short walk to Plage de la Gravette, the closest beach.
The beach itself was tucked neatly outside the curve of the old city wall, just on the other side of Port Vauban. It was late in the day so it wasn’t crowded, but there were a good number of people there enjoying the sand and the water.
Braeden and I quickly waded in and discovered that the bottom was pretty rocky. The visibility was clear enough, but soon I started seeing little bits of trash floating in the water. Not a lot, but just enough to skeeve me out. We played long enough so the boy wouldn’t freak out that we were leaving so soon, then we packed up and left.
There were plenty of beaches in the area, though, so we didn’t give up. A couple of days later we grabbed an Uber and headed to Juan les Pins, a cute part of Antibes known for its chill vibe and nice beaches.
Juliann had discovered that most of the beaches in Juan les Pins were “beach clubs”, or restaurants with rows of shaded lounge chairs on the beach. We found our way to the Garden Beach Hotel, a beach club that was particularly well reviewed, asked for a couple of chairs right by the water, and settled in.
The difference between Juan les Pins and Plage de la Gravette was vast. The water was clean and the beach was tranquil. We spent the entire day there at the Garden Beach Hotel, playing in the water, resting on the lounge chairs, eating, and enjoying cold drinks. It was a blast.
The downside of Juan les Pins was getting there. We didn’t want to be taking Ubers back and forth every time we felt a jonesing for the beach, so throughout our 2 weeks in Antibes we would continue to experiment with other options.
We quickly fell into a comfortable routine. I would take the 7:22 am TER two towns over to hit the 8 am class at CrossFit Villeneuve-Loubet.
[CFVL is run by a couple of great guys, by the way. Guilhem and David have built a beautiful little gym with some great folks, and I was grateful that they took me in and treated me like family. Thanks, guys!]
I would return a few hours later, shower, have breakfast, work for awhile, and then meet Juliann and Braeden out wherever they might be in Antibes. Some days it was Juliann’s “favorite spot”, La Poste (the Post Office), on many it was one of the two little playgrounds in the center of town, once or twice it was by the yachts in the harbor. We’d hang out for a little while, stop by Monoprix for ingredients for our evening meal, then head home for B’s nap.
After that we might go somewhere to kill a little time before dinner or we might do a puzzle, play with Legos, or do some coloring.
Juliann and I try, as much as possible, to let each other have some “Me Time”. One morning Braeden and I decided to go for a long walk in order to let Juliann run some errands and have a quiet coffee by herself, so we wandered through the outdoor market, past the Picasso Museum, and down the coastal road that runs atop the seawall between Old Town and Juan les Pins.
The views of the Mediterranean and its megayachts on one side and the cozy stone houses that lined the street on the other were enchanting, and we must have walked (and scootered) a mile before we reached Juan les Pins and a fantastic seaside playground.
The Dilbar
Just a few days into our stay we woke up, peeked outside, and saw what looked like a cruise ship tied up in Port Vauban. We quickly figured out that it wasn’t a cruise ship but an insanely huge private yacht, and we could make out its name on one of the upper decks: Dilbar.
At the time we incorrectly posted on social media that it was the largest yacht in the world. We were wrong. At 512 feet it’s only the 4th largest yacht in the world.
Even so, it dwarfed the other megayachts in the harbor. Juliann became fascinated with it and discovered that its owner, a Russian billionaire, was having a birthday a few days later on September 9th. We joked about making huge “Happy Birthday” signs in Russian and standing on the wharf. Russians aren’t to be screwed with, though, even if you mean well, so we shelved the idea and toasted him from our balcony instead.
Next: We visit Monaco, finally get to the Picasso Museum, and hike Cap d’Antibes