Antibes

Antibes (Provençal Occitan: Antíbol in classical norm or Antibo in Mistralian norm) is a resort town of southeastern France, on the Mediterranean Sea in the Côte d'Azur, located between Cannes and Nice. It is c. 20 km by rail southwest of Nice, and is situated on the east side of the Garoupe peninsula. Its inhabitants are called Antibois or Antipolitains.

It was formerly fortified, but all the ramparts (save the Fort Carré, built by Vauban, and the ramparts along the sea coast), were demolished in the 1860s. A new town then rose outside the former defenses.

Antibes has the largest yacht marina (by total tonnage) on the Côte d'Azur, built in the 1960s on the site of a Roman harbor. There is still a local fishing industry, much diminished from its size a century ago. It was formerly a site of perfume distilling; the surrounding country once produced an abundance of flowers. Perfume distillation is still carried out on a commercial scale in nearby Grasse.

Antibes is a commune of the Alpes-Maritimes département (formerly in that of the Var, but transferred after the Alpes-Maritimes department was formed in 1860 out of the county of Nice). It covers a number of distinct areas, including:

• Antibes proper (which includes Vieil Antibes, or Old Town, the medieval village of stone masonry) • Port Vauban and the Yacht Club d'Antibes, a huge marina with a separate section devoted to sumptuous mega-yachts • Cap d'Antibes (an exclusive residential area containing several magnificent chateaux) • Juan-les-Pins (Unlike the Spanish name, the J in Juan is pronounced like the S in treasure) • the southern parts of Sophia Antipolis (the northern parts belonging to Biot and Valbonne)

In prehistory, the area around Antibes was inhabited by the Deciates (Δεκιῆται), a tribe of the Ligurians (Smith, entry on Deciátes; Cosson, pp.20-23). The border with the Ligurian Oxybii (Ὀξύβιοι) being to the west of Antibes and east of Frejus (Smith, entry on Oxybii). The Deciates had a town in the area, oppidum Deciatum but this was not Antibes itself (Pliny the Elder, Chorographia, 2.69):

In litoribus aliquot sunt cum aliquis nominibus loca: ceterum rarae urbes quia rari portus, et omnis plaga austro atque africo exposita est. Nicaea tangit Alpes, tangit oppidum Deciatum, tangit Antipolis.

Antibes was the ancient Antipolis (Stabo, Geography 4.1.9). It was founded as a colony of Massallia (Marseilles), in the 6th century BCE, across the bay from Nikea (Nice); the name in Greek means literally "city across" or "city opposite," Anti polis, and is mentioned in the Geography of Strabo. Although no traces of the Greek port remain, wrecks of sunken ships (such as a 6th century BCE Etruscan ship) attest to the importance of this early port.

Polybius (Histories, 33.7) relates that in 155 BCE the Ligurians attacked Massallia, Antipolis and Nikea and in consequence, Massallia appealed to the Romans for help because of a treaty between Massallia and Rome. The resulting defeat of the Deciates and Oxybii also led to greater Roman involvement in the region, culminating in the battle of Aquae Sextiae in 102 BCE and the creation of the Roman province of Narbonensis along the coast from the Alps to the Pyrenees.

In 43 BCE, Antipolis lost its status as a free Masaliote city and was annexed by the Romans, becoming Civitas Antipolitana.

The major attractions of Antibes are its history, climate, art, beaches and yachting. The sand beaches of Antibes are all manmade; the natural beaches are gravel (shingle in British English); in summer, these beaches are maintained using large tractors towing a device which scoops-up, sieves, spreads, and rakes the sand. Antibes' beaches east of Fort Carré (that is, going toward Nice) are still the original rough materials.

The southern peninsula of Antibes is known as Cap d'Antibes. A bastion of wealth and exclusivity, it was the setting for F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night. The Hotel du Cap, called Hôtel des Étrangers in the novel, is still one of the most expensive and exclusive hotels in the world. Until 2006, the Hotel du Cap and its Eden roc restaurant and "beach" club did not even accept credit cards--out of sheer snootiness! Although on a seaside site, the Eden Roc does not have an actual beach; there is a salt water swimming pool with a paved concrete patio for tanning and facilities (a pier, two floats, and a diving board) at the base of their stone ledge cliff for swimming in the sea, but nothing remotely resembling an actual beach.

The highest point on the Cap d'Antibes is occupied by Phare (lighthouse) de la Garoupe, constructed after retreating Nazis blew up the earlier one, and a small Roman Catholic chapel, Chapelle de la Garoupe, containing a locally famous gilded wooden statue of Notre Dame de Bonne Port (loosely, Our Lady of Safe Homecoming), and noted for the variety of ex votive offerings (see votive deposit left by sailors and their families... or sometimes their widows.