Blogs from Antibes, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, France, Europe - page 5

So here we are, living the highlife in the French Riviera! Leah and I had our own tour guide, Brendan, to show us around his old stomping ground, the quaint town of Antibes and along the southern coastline of France. The first stop on the itinerary, by no surprise, is Antibes’ marina for a guided tour and a detailed history of each of the boats there. How he knows, or remembers this stuff, neither of us knew! We had a walk through the town centre, where Leah and I got straight to the important stuff and found a crepe shop. But of course discarded the shop assistant’s advice and both got a crepe with banana and chocolate ice-cream - no matter how messy it was going to be! The next morning we walked further around to ... read more

An early start this morning, as we departed for Antibes, on the Côte d'Azur. Our morning song, ACDC's 'All Night Long', played once again on the way. We stopped off at Avignon in Provence, for a couple of hours, allowing us to have lunch and explore the wonders of this medieval town. Avignon is enclosed by massive ramparts, and became a papal territory when Pope Clement V descended from Rome in 1309, and taking up residence in the Palais des Papes which is a towering sight overlooking the town. Avignon remained a papal territory until 1377, by which time every successor had transformed a once modest building into a magnificent palace. The town also contains other charming sights - the 13th-century Petit Palais, once the Archbishop of Avignon's residence, the Cathédrale de Notre-Dame-des-Doms, and the 14th-century ... read more

It had been several years since we had taken a holiday in Antibes, so we took a week vacation to return to one of our favorite places in Europe. Many say the Nice is nice; and most tourists tend to use Nice as their travel hub for the French Riviera. But for us Antibes is nicer...indeed, the nicest! We drove down from Brussels on Saturday, 20 July 1985 and returned home on Sunday, 28 July 1985. We stayed at our favorite hotel, the Royal, right across from our favorite beach, and at the edge of the old town. Our routine for the week was to spend the mornings on the beach. Then after lunch we would drive to Cannes, Monte Carlo, and other coastal town, or St Paul de Vence, Grasse, and other hilltop towns. In ... read more

In July 1979 Uncle Wayne and Aunt Minnie came to visit us. Uncle Wayne’s sister Neva was with them. We picked them up at Frankfurt. Unfortunately, the airline had lost Uncle Wayne’s luggage so we stopped at the PX at Rhein Main Air Base to pick up a few items of clothing. During their stay with us we visited Triffels Castle where Richard the Lion Hearted was held for ransom on his way back from the Crusades. Then they joined us for the first part of our summer vacation. 21 July 1979 Saturday. We drove from Glan Munchweiler to Ulm where we climbed the steeple to get a magnificent view of the town and surrounding countryside. From there we continued south to Neuschwanstein Castle for the castle tour. We finished the day at Garmisch where we ... read more