Last time, we looked at Juan-les-Pins. Today, we’ll go about a mile east across Cap- d’Antibes, and look at the far-less trendy Antibes itself — which I have to say, I prefer to its glitzy neighbor now that I think about it. Here it is:
I don’t know if Antibes is an older town than JLP, but it certainly feels older:
Ex-Drummer Knob and I had dinner here — not at this exact restaurant, but two doors down, and the meal with wine came to just around $30 each. Other out-of-season prices are also reasonable, more so than across the Cap:
Five euros for a glass of squeezed OJ is one-fifth the cost of the same in Juan-les-Pins…
Also, in Antibes you don’t get sunsets because it faces to the east. Of course, that means beautiful sunrises:
I have to stop doing these posts, because they are making the old feet start to twitch uncontrollably… or maybe that’s just the onset of Parky’s.
Which would make it all the more imperative to get over there soon.
Dash it man! You are giving me itchy feet, and that with my back being out and recovering from mild Coof at same time. Let me tell you, every cough is hot needles.
I am sure I can persuade my wife to go, from past travels, September/October would be the best choice for a week or two..
I have never traveled outside of the states. I know, gonna get ribbed for that, its fine.
At any rate, $30 each for a meal out? That is CHEAP! Fast food here in the states is edging towards 15 to 20 for one person, for cheap garbage.
The food alone looks good and is priced well.
So here’s one for your dream planning.
The Wife and I are probably going to celebrate our 30th anniversary in 2025. We would like to spend a month in Europe as our gift to ourselves for putting up with each other for this long.
If you were going to do that, how would you play it. Note that expense *does* matter, but we’re neither rich, nor poor. I’m *aiming* to have a budget of about 400 a day, but that may need to go up or down.
Do you want me to put together an itinerary for you? If so, email me with details, i.e. places you really want to see, or can live without.
The problem with Southern Europe is there are too many old, beautiful towns all around the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Adriatic coasts.
Choosing one is hard. What if the town 10 km down the road is nicer?
On of our friends is an airline pilot. He just picks the shortest direct flight with his airline, or one of its partners, to somewhere in Europe, then goes to the closest small town that appeals to him or his wife.
All that is true. However, if you want to travel — get into the culture, try the foods, see how people live and so on — and not be a tourist (museums, art galleries etc.) the job becomes even more difficult.
You are exactly right.
The job of picking the very best of the best grew too difficult and tiresome for me, so the last 3 times we were there we spent a few days at a “destination” city but then rented small cars or took local trains semi-randomly about.
Best idea we ever had. With a cell phone finding accommodation was easy. Some big names like Siena and Pisa were a bit of a bust – interesting but worth a day at most.
Others like Badajoz, Merida, Elvas, Peso da Regua, Le Havre, Southampton, Salisbury etc were different, interesting and much cheaper than the tourist traps.
My motto has become “If it’s got a McDonalds or anything like it, it’s not for me”. Don’t get me wrong, I like Mickey D, but I’m not spending my kids’ inheritance and breaking my back on a 10 hour red-eye flight from Western Canada to get that stuff again.
Nah, not that level of detail–it seems like you like this sort of dreaming and planning (which I do as well), but you have a *completely* different mental map of Euroland than I do, as you have traveled through there much more.
I don’t think my wife or I would have ever thought of going to Antibes, or Juan-les-Pins. When we spent 3 weeks in Italy we did Rome, Milan Mestre/Venice and Naples/Pompei. Mostly because my wife likes museums and famous places. I prefer strolling down avenues in the evening, having a good, but not expensive meal (or a REALLY REALLY, tell stories about it meal that is expensive), and generally seeing the sights.
But since our actual anniversary is in August, which is the worst time to travel in Europe, we will either do it in September/October or in March/April.
I wanted to see what you’d come up with because–as I noted–you have so much more experience in those areas.
My question – and it’s serious, not rhetorical – is, how enjoyable is a trip to Europe these days, after all the Mooselimb immivasion and the Covidiocy? I have been to Spain twice and would love to experience France and Italy, but I wonder how much has been permanently ruined.
The Muslims are still a small minority. The stories are true-ish but overblown by the main stream media who make money from conflict.
We spent 10 days in Paris in May and saw a few Muslims but saw no Muslim problems at all.
The big problem we saw was the ongoing attraction of the Frogs to communism. We passed by a big French Communist Party May Day rally at Place de la République and those buggers are still there and still crazy.
Be warned, the food in France is indifferent and indistinguishable from urban American unless you’re prepared to pay a lot of money. It’s mostly descended to a form of bar food. They mostly have equivalents of nacho plates, chicken fingers, sliders, beef dip, burgers, pizza, calamari, etc and they’re a mix of identical and slightly different.