Antibes, France: harbour and 16th century fortress

This week the Monaco Grand Prix is to the East (close to the Italian border) and the Cannes Film Festival (just to the West) is in full swing a few kilometres to the West.

I went to neither event, but the Cannes festival came to me, in the guise of Andie MacDowell (4 weddings, 1 funeral) who brushed by me on the old sea ramparts in Antibes.  No apology given by her.

The Antibes harbour is gigantic. God knows how many boats (thousands?) are in there; in addition, hundreds of boats of all sizes are either moored several hundred metres from the coast, or moving slowly along the coast (looking for spare berths?).  In addition there is a constant noise of aircraft either landing or taking off from Nice Airport.  And on top of that there are helicopters noisily buzzing along the coast, no doubt ferrying their expensive VIPs.  (On this topic there will be further remarks in a later blip.)

The fort (on the hill, far side of harbour).

A fascinating building, provided you can manage the walk up there on such a hot day.

Original fort was built in the 1500s.  At that time Antibes was French territory (Provence), whilst Nice (the next large town along the coast) belonged to the Duchy of Savoy.  The fort was thus important to protect to the boundary and port from foreign incursions.

In the 1600s the fort was radically changed and enlarged by Vauban to comply with developments in war technology.

It was in 1860 that Nice was ceded by Savoy to France, in recognition of the part played by France to Piedmont in the creation of a new Italy.

Garibaldi was NOT amused!!!!