The beaches of the French Riviera - Les Plages dans Antibes et Juan les Pins pres de Nice et Cannes sur le Cote d'Azur.

| Menton | Monaco | Nice | Villeneuve Loubet | Fontonne/Biot |

ANTIBES: Old Antibes Town Gravette | Ponteil and Salis Plage | Juan Les Pins | Garoupe | Special Places | Even Eden | Cannes


The pictures in this review of the south of France beaches have been viciously compressed to enable the fastest possible loading times and apologies are made for deterioration of quality. If this page is too slow to load, then please use these links:

| Menton Monaco Nice Villeneuve Loubet | Fontonne / Biot | ANTIBES: Old Antibes Town Gravette Ponteil and Salis Plage Juan Les Pins | Garoupe and Special Places and even Eden | Cannes

SOS ! - Please help to save the Garoupe from being destroyed by bureaucracy

Menton

Artificial beach at Menton (photo at Easter) - mixed size stones - crowded in summer

Monaco

Small shingle artificial beach

Nice

The beach at Nice is pebbles and extremely crowded in Summer (photo taken at Easter)

Nice and its beach are better experienced from here

Villeneuve Loubet

Why do you think these beaches look uncrowded in Summer?

extraordinary building at Baie des Anges

Biot

The beaches are as good as most along the Cote d'Azur at Menton, Nice, Cagnes Sur Mer, and Villeneuve Loubet: pebbly. You can have a good holiday there. However, we would not produce a website about merely ordinary beaches . . . :-)


(photo from brochure)

It's near Antibesland, Marineland, a wonderful tourist waterworld. In the centre of the photograph you can see the ancient towers of the old Fort and town whilst on the left you can see the Peninsula of the beautiful Cap d'Antibes.

La Fontonne

La Fontonne region of Antibes (east end) in the South of France offers lots of cheap accommodation. The pebble beach is sandwiched between the open sea, a main road and the railway line.

In the distance, 2km away, you can see the Fort Carre of Antibes

ANTIBES

where you can truly relax!

The beach at Vieil Antibes and Port Vauban: Plage de La Gravette

The Old Antibes beach which small, sandy, pleasant (but can be crowded), faces west into the sun. What is particularly nice about the beach is that it is sheltered from waves by a small breakwater and this enclosure makes it particularly safe for children.

beach at

Antibes Plage du Ponteil and Plage de La Salis

The Le Salis beach is another 1.5 km further on - good, very big and crowded in the very height of season.

Here's the best place nearby to buy beach toys, swim rings and air mats

Plage du Ponteil: the bay has breakwaters so the water is very safe.

The Salis Plage looking towards the town

The Salis Plage looking towards Cap D'Antibes with the lighthouse on the right. This is at the height of mid-August.

Normally there's much more space than in the August photograph!

Juan Les Pins

Juan les Pins is on the opposite side of the peninsular and the beach there is huge and popular and faces into the hot Sirocco wind. There are lots of placesHere selling beach toys

Cote d'Azur beach in August crowds at Juan
Juan in the height of August

panorama of beach at Juan Les PinsFrench Riviera beach in August at Juan

Photos taken with a horrible Mustek digitak camera!

Juan slightly later in the month.

Cap d'Antibes - the Garoupe beach and others around the Cap d'Antibes

SOS ! - Please help to save the Garoupe from being destroyed by bureaucracy

The Cap d'Antibes is the West end of Antibes. Property there is very expensive and exclusive - many places there have security gates etc etc and most property owners do not bother to rent out their houses.

Just imagine surveying this view towards Nice at Easter

The Garoupe beach on the Cap d'Antibes is very posh! It is sheltered from the wind and it faces east, so you are not looking into the sun, except at sunrise for your 6.30am dip in August. Just imagine waking up to this! If you want to do so on your holiday then email the webmaster@antibes.co.uk!

Sunrise at Plage de la Garoupe

It has restaurants along it and paid beach chair spaces with a public section in the middle.

beach at

Plage Joseph is really good fun for children in teh Summer and the Petit Plage has shallow warm water and interesting rocks to play around.

The beach is divided into sections, two of which are public non-paying. But the others are good value and an enormous amount of work goes into cleaning away the incredible amounts of seaweed that accumulate over the winters and keeping it clean during the season.

At the end of the beach is Plage Joseph with the yellow Keller beach next door. Lots of people go there, especially people wanting to see people who want to be seen. Quieter La Joliette is in the middle with two sandy public sections each side. The people there are very nice, friendly and jolly. At the end of the main part is Le Rocher, which for food is my favourite with Monsieur Crampe's Crepes. Just around the corner is Petite Plage which is my favourite place to swim and has the best value mattresses and parasols as well. Slightly up the hill is the smartest place of all, the Garoupe Beach Restaurant

For Wedding receptions, birthday celebrations and evening parties, the webmaster recommends La Joliette, Le Rocher and Garoupe Beach Restaurant.

If you are coming to the Riviera on your boat or yacht, anchor in the bay and ring up any of these restaurants and they will collect you.

(Taken at Easter 2001)

Plage Keller serves wonderful food and is associated with Cesar's Restaurant. They do wonderful evening events, parties and wedding celebrations.

(All the above photos were taken with a Canon A5, A50 or S10 digital camera except where indicated - the many of the photos below were scanned in from conventional photos)

This is the public section in the middle

Everyone knows everyone there because it is small and it has a very "village" atmosphere. A lot of people meet for lunch at one of the restaurant places.

You can walk up and down and swim across all of the privately operated beach chaise/ umbrella/ food places and no-one minds.


The yacht owners anchor in the bay and swim into the beach

or the rocky coves for the day.


The car park has a greater concentration of Mercs and Rolls Royces than you've ever seen before and there will be bronzed Italian ladies there who have been browning themselves every day at the same places since June.


But it's one of the only places with real sand to be enjoyed by children

For holiday accommodation the Cap is probably expensive but well worth it if you can find it. I might best describe it in terms of the whole of the coast having been developed under concrete to a varying degree but leaving the Cap still wooded with trees in which Grasshoppers / Crickets make their characteristic noise. If you want to rent an apartment or two, the webmaster knows of local accommodation or can put you in touch with agents. If you want to buy a property in the area you might also email the webmaster@antibes.co.uk

From a path next to the Garoupe beach you can walk around theHeadland on a picturesque but very rocky path. There is a notice at the entrance which warns : Longueur du Parcours 2700m. PASSAGES DIFFICILES. ATTENTION! ACCES DANGEREUX PAR COUP DE MER. BE CAREFUL DANGEROUS PATH BY ROUGH SEA. TEMPS MOYENS 1H.

In fact it is likely to take much longer than oneHour. DO NOT DO THIS WALK IN THE EVENING! There is no path at the other end

and you have to clamber over rocks over which considerable quantities of water splashes.

You end up near Eilen Roc and the wonderful rock coast there:

(The above 8 photographs were taken with a Canon A5 digital camera)

If you want relaxation away from such wildness you can go to the Eden Roc restaurant you can spend the day there by the pool there for around 25 pounds per day . . .

On the West side of the Cap, facing Juan and Cannes there is the Plage des Ondes, beach of waves. Need I say more? There's about 2m of sand between the wall and the water and hardy souls like it. But there's a ruined tower in the sea that children like to play upon. More photos after next summer!



Beaches | Hotels |Cafes | Camping | The Cap | The Quaint Streets, town centre and Old Town | Cafes | Cake shops | Chocolatiers | The Gardens of Eilen Roc | From the Air | Ice Cream shops | Last minute Mediterranean Holiday availabilities and opportunities | Juan Les Pins | Local bus services | Maps | Menton | Nice | the Ports | The Markets | Museums | Real estate and property to buy | Shops (no ordinary places) | The Town Squares | Tourist Information Offices |

antibes.co.uk dans France

provides reliable internet services for businesses in Antibes and the French Riviera.


webmaster services

email the webmaster