Life's a beach....

We decided our last day of vacation should be a bit more relaxed, and decided to head to the beach. But it's the French Riviera-which of the many beaches to choose?  We decided to hunt for one with sand.  Here in Nice the beaches are pebbly. And we saw lots of jellyfish out in Cap Ferrat.  We decided to try Antibes, which is west of Nice and east of Cannes. 

Antibes  - founded in the fifth century BC by Greek traders.  It has a medieval feel with a warren of streets protected by ramparts and an offshore fort. 

We headed to the covered market to buy lunch. The zucchini blossoms looked good, but not for a picnic. 

We passed on the olives too. 

But this guy won our business with his amazing ratatouille 

And a baguette of course from here. Did we also enjoy almond croissant and quiche Lorraine?  But of course. 

The streets had some nice boutiques and looked nice too with flowers and well dressed patrons. 

Though Rich declined to enter the porcelain dish store, as he was our pack llama, and a bit challenged with his turn radius. 

Off to the beach. Here's our picnic-cheese, bread, ratatouille, raspberries.  Perfect. 

Rich then braved the cool water temps and possible jellyfish to swim in the Mediteranian.  Antibes is supposedly where waterskiing was invented-Rich said the water had high bouancy. So perhaps that helped with the original inspiration. 

This was our little beach.

There were bigger ones nearby , but hotels and other for profit entities monopolize a lot of the sandy beaches as a pay to play deal. This one was free. 

Back to Nice, and a "greatest hits" dinner.  Mussels and frites, and socca at our favorite place.  Pissaladiere (a Caramelized onion, olive and anchovy pizza bread famous to the region), gelato, and one lemon custard pastry to go. We wanted to eat it with a view, which we found at Castle Rock. We took the Ascension (the French for elevator) to the top of castle hill for views of Nice   The sun was working for us on the port side. 

A bit more hazy looking over the coastline 

Rich saw me in this position a lot -resting up on a bench. There wasn't a single day of the trip we had less than 5 miles of walking, and often it was more than double that.  I managed okay though-the miracle of cortisone shots. 

A nice waterfall on the way down. 

Tomorrow it's a plane and back to the US. 

We won't miss the labor strikes, the smoking, the pickpocket vigilance, and trying to comprehend what people are trying to tell us when they are being helpful due to our limited French.  We will miss the great food, wine, the helpful people, the scenery, history, the excitement,  the art. And the boats.  Au revoir