Cap d'Antibes Area Guide

Nicknamed the bay of billionaires for its extremely valuable real estate and the people who often frequent it, the Cap d’Antibes enjoys privileged and panoramic views westwards towards Cannes and the Iles de Lérins, and eastwards across the sea to the Baie des Anges and Nice, with the exquisite snow-covered Alps just behind.

Although traces of its history date back to the Iron Age, Antibes as we know it was founded as a Greek colony in the 4^th Century BC. They named it Antipolis.

But gradually the Romans increased their influence until in the first century BC, Antipolis was incorporated in the Roman province of Gaul, where it remained for the next 500 years. Antipolis under the Romans grew into the largest town in the region and the main port of entry into the rest of Gaul. Roman aqueducts, defensive walls, well preserved Roman houses and amphoræ can still be seen all over Antibes today, most notably in rue Clemenceau.

The rich history of Antibes is a never-ending story through two or more millennia; most recently Napoleon landed there on his escape from Elba in 1815, on his way to Paris to become Emperor for the second time, and Picasso lived and worked there, and two world wars raged through there in the 20^th Century too….

There are 48 beaches, half a dozen museums, parks and gardens, festivals including “Jazz à Juan” which remains after more than half a century one of the top jazz festivals in the world, and a beautiful climate.

Cocooned in quiet and seclusion and flanked by sandy beaches, the Cap d’Antibes has another claim to fame. It provides total privacy to its many and varied prestigious property owners, residents and guests.

Famously, the Cap is home to the near-mythical Eden Roc Hotel, known for being the most discreet in the business, and long-time host to the rich and famous, most notably during the Film Festival and the congresses taking place at the Palais des Festivals in nearby Cannes. But it’s not only the A-List Stars of stage and screen through the ages that have enjoyed it, but Eden Roc has also been a favourite of so many household names since the 19^th century.

To mention just a few of those who have loved it, many of them having owned homes there: F. Scott Fitzgerald who famously wrote about it, and Ernest Hemingway, Noël Coward, Marlene Dietrich, Alain Delon, Elizabeth Taylor (who brought all of her husbands there); all were frequent visitors. Marc Chagall, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse, John and Yoko Lennon, Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg, Ella Fitzgerald, Winston Churchill, Charles De Gaulle, the Kennedys including President John (JFK), and high society Russian aristocrats, the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson…. The list goes on, and the legend endures – the allure has not died on the Cap dÁntibes – and the people keep on coming.

The price of property on the Cap d’Antibes is in keeping with its reputation as some of the most desirable in the world.