The sea ramparts
A walk above the water on Vauban's fortifications.
Abxbay — CC BY-SA 3.0 · Public domain · Paul Signac — Public domain · Paul Signac — Public domain
**Antibes** for most travellers, and clearly so. It is a town **inhabited all year**, so food and accommodation prices sit closer to reality, its public beaches are wider and free unlike the Croisette carved into private concessions, and its old town is more genuine and less staged. It is on the same rail line, so Cannes is 12 minutes away and Nice 20 — you visit both and sleep somewhere quieter and cheaper. Choose **Cannes** only if the festival or its grand hotels are specifically the point.
That it is **the town's own market**, not a souvenir market. Under its iron canopy on the Cours Masséna, local producers sell every morning: olives of every kind, Provençal herbs, goat cheeses, flowers, seasonal vegetables and cured goods, with packing-up starting around midday. Go **early** to see it actually working, and take cash. On some afternoons the space turns into a craft market. This is the best place to buy food rather than to eat it — the restaurants are in the lanes behind.
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A city Greek in origin like Marseille: sailors from Phocaea founded it and called it *Antipolis* — "the city opposite", because it faces Nice across the bay. It has not stopped being a fortified port since. What sets it apart from its Riviera neighbours is that it is **a real town, not a tourist frontage**: narrow stone lanes, washing strung out, schools, grocers, and people living there all year — unlike Cannes and Saint-Tropez, which empty out of season. A seventeenth-century **sea wall** built by Vauban, Louis XIV's engineer, wraps around it, and you walk along it directly above the water between the waves and the town. Inside, the covered **Provençal market** on the Cours Masséna is among the best on the coast: olives, herbs, cheese, flowers and local vegetables every morning. On its sea edge stands the **Château Grimaldi**, now the Picasso Museum, and **Port Vauban**, one of the largest yacht harbours in the Mediterranean. This is the best base on the Riviera for anyone wanting a town to live in rather than just a beach.
A walk above the water on Vauban's fortifications.
Olives, herbs, cheese and flowers each morning on the Cours Masséna.
One of the Mediterranean's largest yacht harbours.
Vieil Antibes, 06600 Antibes