Beaches
of the French Riviera
The pictures in this review of the south of France beaches have been viciously compressed to enable the fastest possible loading times and apologies are made for deterioration of quality.
Menton
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
1hour 45 minutes
Artificial beach at Menton (photo at Easter) - mixed
size stones - crowded in summer
Monaco
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
1hour 30 minutes
Small shingle artificial beach
Nice
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
1hour 10minutes
The beach at Nice is
pebbles and extremely crowded in Summer (photo taken at
Easter)
Villeneuve Loubet
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
1hour
Biot
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
1hour
The beaches are as good as most along the Cote d'Azur
at Menton, Nice, Cagnes Sur Mer, and Villeneuve Loubet:
pebbly. You can have a good holiday there. However, we would not produce
a website about merely ordinary beaches.
It's near Antibesland, Marineland, a wonderful
tourist waterworld. In the centre of the photograph you can see the
ancient towers of the old Fort and town whilst on the left you can
see the Peninsula of the beautiful Cap d'Antibe.
La Fontonne
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
1hour
La Fontonne region of Antibes (east end) in the South
of France offers lots of cheap accommodation. The pebble beach is
sandwiched between the open sea, a main road and the railway line.
In the distance, 2km away, you can see
the Fort Carre of Antibes
ANTIBES
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
1hour
where you can truly relax!
The beach at Vieil Antibes and
Port Vauban: Plage de La Gravette
The Old Antibes beach which small, sandy, pleasant (but can be
crowded), faces west into the sun. What is particularly nice about
the beach is that it is sheltered from waves by a small breakwater
and this enclosure makes it particularly safe for children.
Antibes Plage du Ponteil and Plage de La Salis
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
50 minutes
The Le Salis beach is another 1.5 km further on - good, very big
and crowded in the very height of season.
Plage du Ponteil: the bay has breakwaters so the
water is very safe.
The Salis Plage looking towards the town
The Salis Plage looking towards Cap D'Antibes with
the lighthouse on the right.
This is at the height of mid-August.
Normally there's much more space than in the August
photograph!
Juan Les Pins
Estimated travel time from Fayence:
50 minutes
Juan Les Pins is on the opposite side
of the peninsular and the
beach there is huge and
popular and faces into the hot Sirocco wind. There are lots of places here
selling beach toys.
Juan in the height of August
It has restaurants along it and paid beach chair spaces with a
public section in the middle.
Plage Joseph is really good fun for children in
the
Summer and the Petite Plage has shallow warm water and interesting
rocks to play around.
Plage Keller serves wonderful food and is associated
with Cesar's Restaurnat. They do wonderful evening events, parties and
wedding celebrations.
This is the public section in the middle
Everyone knows everyone there because it is small and it has a
very "village" atmosphere. A lot of people meet for lunch at one of
the restaurant places.
You can walk up and down and swim across all of the privately
operated beach chaise/ umbrella/ food places and no-one minds.
The yacht owners anchor in the bay and swim into the beach
or the rocky coves for the day.
The car park has a greater concentration of Mercs and Rolls Royces
than you've ever seen before and there will be bronzed Italian ladies
there who have been browning themselves every day at the same places
since June.
But it's one of the only places with real sand to be enjoyed by
children
For holiday accommodation the Cap is probably expensive but
well worth it if you can find it. I might
best describe it in terms of the whole ofthe coast having been developed under
concrete to a varying degree
but leaving the Cap still wooded with trees in
which Grasshoppers / Crickets make their characteristic noise.
From a path next to the Garoupe beach you can walk around
the Headland on a picturesque but very rocky path. There is a notice at the entrance which warns : Longueur du Parcours 2700m. PASSAGES
DIFFICILES. ATTENTION! ACCES DANGEREUX PAR COUP DE MER. BE CAREFUL
DANGEROUS PATH BY ROUGH SEA. TEMPS MOYENS 1H. ESTIMATED TIME 1 HOUR.
In fact it is likely to take much longer than
one hour. DO NOT DO THIS WALK IN THE EVENING! There is no path at the
other end
and you have to clamber over rocks over which
considerable quantities of water splashes.
     
You end up near Eilen Roc and the wonderful
rock coast there:
If you want relaxation away from such wildness you can go to the
Eden Roc restaurant you can spend the day
there by the pool there for around 25 pounds per day . . .
On the West side of the Cap, facing Juan and Cannes there is the
Plage des Ondes, beach of waves. Need I say more? There's about 2m of
sand between the wall and the water and hardy souls like it.
But there's a ruined tower in the sea that children like to
play upon. More photos after next summer!
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