Antibes, France
Again, we were lucky enough to stay with our friend in her family’s summer house in Antibes (right by the legendary Hôtel du Cap Eden Roc, where Hemingway and Picasso used to hang out - NO BIG DEAL). This house was the perfect place for a group of 7 twenty-something-year-olds to get snobby, brag about our cooking skills, and soak in the summer sun with umbrellas in our cocktails. It felt like “L’auberge espagnol” with so many international people the house. English, Spanish and French were all spoken and mixed together like some crazy drunk version of It’s a Small World. The south of France is usually the kind of place I try to stay away from since it’s so overcrowded with tourists, but we discovered a part of Antibes that made our stay there 100% worthwhile. Right there, in the midst of all the millionaires’ villas, there’s a little dirt path that transports you to another world. Just picture it: beautiful limestone cliffs that lead off into the brightest bluest sea you’ve ever seen, and then breathtaking paths that wind around pine trees and olive trees. It’s amazing. I was surprised to see how narrow and uneven parts of the path were, but that only made it even more perfect for a hike! Along the trail, we spotted some locals casually jumping off some of the cliffs. Nervous and excited, both of us managed to summon up the courage to jump off that 12 meter (40ft) jump. WOO! I highly doubt I’ll ever have the guts to do that again, but it was definitely an experience worth having at least once in a lifetime.
The old town of Antibes is super cute. There’s a very nice fresh foods market that is accompanied by great accordion street performers who add to the happy ambience of the place. We stuck around the town for Bastille day and we saw the fireworks show from the top of a hill by a lighthouse. What an amazing sight to see! During the night, we went out to a club in Juan les Pins which was great fun, and on another night we checked out a beach club on the way to Nice called “La Siesta” where we danced our little sandy feet off into the night – but none of that comes close to the fun we had just goofing around the house making good food and playing endless card games. (Take me back!)
