Top 5 must-see guided tours of Antibes

Visit the ancient town of Antibes/Antipolis

Antibes was founded at the same time as Marseille, in the 6th century BC, by the Phocaean Greeks from Asia Minor. The areas occupied by the Greeks today correspond to the present-day Sainte-Marie cathedral, Cours Masséna and Rue de la République.

The Romans, for their part, arrived in the city around 150 BC: they had been summoned by the inhabitants, who were threatened by a Celtic people, the Oxybians. The Romans built a temple dedicated to Minerva and equipped the town with two aqueducts to supply it with drinking water: the Fontvieille aqueduct, which drew water from Biot, and the Bouillide aqueduct, which carried water from Valbonne via Vallauris. The Antibes Archaeology Museum preserves the treasures of the town’s rich ancient past.

The Guides de France take you back in time. Follow them to find out more about the ancient history of Antibes.

A cultural tour of Antibes: in the footsteps of Pablo Picasso!

In 1946, an illustrious Spanish painter, whose reputation had been established by “Guernica”, took up residence on the second floor of the Château Grimaldi. Pablo Picasso spent two years in the town, working alongside Jacqueline Roque, and painted “Ulysse et les Sirènes” and “La femme aux oursins”. This last work echoes the time the artist spent in Golfe Juan, after work or during his lunch break: Picasso bought and ate sea urchins with the many acquaintances he made in and around the town. He met the Ramié couple, who ran a ceramics business.

In 1948, the painter moved to Vallauris. The studio he occupied on the second floor of the Château Grimaldi in Antibes was transformed into a museum: it houses works painted by the artist as well as ceramic objects decorated by him.

Juan les Pins: visit contemporary Antibes

Antibes underwent a major transformation at the end of the 19th century with the arrival of the railway: the town moved outside its ramparts, which were partly destroyed.

The fortifications that had been built during the reign of the kings to counter the Spanish and Austrians lost their usefulness when the county of Nice became French in 1860 and the town of Antibes was attached to the newly formed department of Alpes-Maritimes.

New districts sprang up in line with the growth in the town’s residential and tourist functions: it was against this backdrop that Juan les Pins was born in 1882. Its growth was fuelled by the arrival of illustrious figures such as the author Guy de Maupassant and a new clientele from the United States of America.