Long Weekend trips to Antibes

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When we lived in Glan Munchweiler we took a trip to the French Riviera in conjunction with a weeklong trip that included northern Italy. After moving to Boblingen, we soon learned that we could do a number of longer distance trips over three day weekends by taking overnight trains sleeping in the couchette compartments.

After work on Friday evening we would drive either to Kehl, Germany or Strasbourg, France where we would catch the the 7 pm train directly to Antibes, arriving about 8 am the next morning. We would check into the Hotel Royal located right across from the sandy beach on the Cap D'Antibes side of town.

We would then spend Saturday, Sunday, and Monday mornings until about 1 pm on the beach. Sometimes we would walk the one kilometer over to the Juan les Pins beach.

After a late lunch, either at our hotel or in town, we would tour. There was plenty to see in Antibes, an older town with a fort that houses a Picasso Museum and which has many narrow winding cobblestone steets with flower bedecked balconies. We would also shop for all things Povencal, especially the colorful fabrics which Linda enjoyed as sun dresses or table clothes.

Often we would take the train to Monaco or Cannes, or the bus to St Paul de Vence, a hilltop town with an artist community. I bought a painting of Antibes that continues to inspire me to travel.

By late afternoon, we would return to the beach as the colors changed as sunset approached.

Monday afternoon was different. We had to check out of our hotel by lunch, so we had the afternoon relaxing in the park watching the local men play boules or reading. We had dinner and then caught the night train back to Strasbourg. A two hour drive later I was at work, only having to take two hours leave for three days on the beach!

Over the 4th of July long weekend in 1982 Steve, Kay, Stevie and David joined us. There was a U.S. Navy ship off the coast of Cannes, so we went there for one of the days. We caught a tender to the ship, but the waves were too high for us to board, so we had to return to Cannes. We spent the day on the beach and walking around the town. The World Cup was underway in Italy while we were there, so some of our time was spent watching on TV.

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