GuppyArt

Antibes, France

Home
Antibes
Birds
Links & Credits
Guestbook

 
La Cote d'Azur
 

coverban-bot.jpg

On the other side of the Baie des Anges (Bay of Angels), across from Nice, is the port of Antibes. This old Mediterranean town has a quiet charm unique on the Cōte d'Azur. Its little harbor is filled with fishing boats and pleasure yachts, and in recent years it has emerged as a new "hot spot." The marketplaces are full of flowers, mostly roses and carnations. If you're in Antibes in the evening, you can watch fishers playing the traditional Riviera game of boule.

Spiritually, Antibes is totally divorced from Cap d'Antibes, which is a peninsula studded with the villas and pools of the super-rich. In Tender Is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald described it as a place where "old villas rotted like water lilies among the massed pines." Photos of film and rock stars lounging at the Eden Roc have appeared in countless magazines.

Located: 567 miles (912.50km) S of Paris, 13 miles (20.92km) SW of Nice, 7 miles (11.27km) NE of Cannes.

From: Frommer's Antibes and Cap d'Antibes

 

more >>

swirl15.gif

map.gif

Antibes - a.k.a. 'Antipolis'
 
Antibes was a Greek fortified town named Antipolis (possibly meaning "opposite the point of "Nice," across the Baie des Anges) in the 5th century BC, and later a Roman town, and always an active port for trading along the Mediterranean.
 
History
 
Ligurian: Antibes goes back about 3000 years, when Ligurian tribes used the little inlet of Saint-Roch as a natural port, protected from the east winds by two large rocks.

Greek: A Greek Massaliote colony founded "Antipolis" (Antibes) and "Nikļa" (Nice) while expanding trade from "Massalia" (Marseilles). They fortified "Antipolis" against the ancient Ligurian who had earlier been pushed off the coast and into the Alps.

Roman: About 154 BC, with the local tribes of Dāciates and Oxybiens threatening Antipolis and Nikļa, the city of Marseilles called in Roman protection. By the 2nd century, Rome had developed the region as a Provence, giving the name Provence that is used today. In 43 BC, Antipolis was annexed by Rome.

The town is full of Roman artefacts (walls, aqueducts, amphora, etc.) from the ancient town or the nearby sea bottom, and visible around the town or in the museums; details are available from the Office de Tourism or the many guidebooks describing Antibes.

Barbarian: In 476, when the Roman Empire fell, the barbarians invested the region. Vandals, Visigoths, Burgundians, Ostrogoths and Franks all had their turn, with the theme being destruction.

Medieval:  Antibes was ruled by the Lords of Grasse and later by the Bishops of Antibes. At the end of the 14th century, Antibes was on the Franco-Savoyard frontier, and in 1383, the Pope of Avignon "gave" Antibes to the Grimaldi family of Cagnes. In 1608, King Henri IV took Antibes into his kingdom.

From: "LA-COTE-DAZUR.COM" at 1French-Riviera

 

 

more >>

Copyright © 2007 ml creations & guppyart-mc. All rights reserved.
Images featured on this site may not be used, reproduced or distributed without written permission by the artist.
go to ml creations!
site design - ml creations