Antibes: Day 3

Big Blue Yacht with Helicopter

Around 4:00 am a storm began in north.  The thunder woke me up and then the rain started followed by intense lightning.  This went on for about 30 minutes and it was calm again.  I was already awake so I worked on some of the images I had taken.  

Our destination today was Antibes.  Antibes is an old historic French town on the  Med. coast just south of Nice.  It was founded as an ancient Greek trading post a long time ago, became fortified in the 17th Century and was even home to Napoleon for a short time at the town Fort Carre. Today Antibes is known for its mega-yacht basin and a row of more than a dozen multi-million dollar yachts.  The blue one above has a helicopter on the top deck.  There was not just a one huge yacht but more than a dozen were docked and room for a few more.  These ships were the size of a destroyer escort.  Someone somewhere does not have problems with the economy!

We walked into town stopping at the local market and checked out all the fresh fruits and vegetables all the while I was pointing the Nikon and tripping the shutter.  The open air market has olives, meat, spices, flowers, soaps and scents.  We had our usual 2-hour lunch at an outdoor cafe.  They make great pizzas here!  MA and Nola are still talking up a storm. But I guess that's what happens when sisters haven't seen each other for seven years!

After lunch we walked along the sea wall, were blown away by the beauty of the Mediterranean beaches and sea. Along the way I met a group of three French municipal police officers, a male and two female officers.  I make it habit of introducing myself to police officers everywhere we travel and thank them for their service.  When I showed the Antibes officers my HPD badge/id and it was like they had found an old friend.  They were very glad to meet a "brother" officer from Texas and they appreciated the praises of a job well done. 

Later in the afternoon I took the Nikon exploring more of this beautiful city of Vence and MA, Nola and Randy called on some good friends at a guest hotel they manage.  They were quickly ushered onto a  beautiful terrace with a gorgeous view and plied with the best chocolate cake MA had ever eaten and some of that great and strong French coffee.  MA says it was really interesting because among the five of them they conversed in three languages, Serbian, French and English here and there. MA thinks her French teachers Pasqale and Valerie would have been proud of her conversation skills.

Every day is a beautiful adventure!  Later! (A bientot!) WW and MA

Provence soaps in Antibes