Antibes Travel Forum

I am visiting the old town in September 2006, l need to be able to park my car for about 2 weeks.

Hi. You didn't list where you are from on your Home Page here on VT so I have no idea where you are coming from with that car. If it's a rental car, see if you can turn it in for the two weeks. Why pay for it if you are not using it?

Assuming you are driving from some other place in Europe, one must also assume you have a place to stay in Antibes. Can you leave your car at your place of residence there? If not, can you ask the people where you are staying where they recommend you park the car?

Is there any way you can go to Antibes and leave your car at home? That would be ideal. You wouldn't have to worry about it.

There is public parking but I'm not sure how they deal with cars that are left for such an extended period of time.

My first call would be to the place I was staying. They should have a recommendation for parking.

Echo, echo.

Not only have you got major hassle parking, the road traffic down there is totally horrendous right now. Four million Frenchmen and families are off on their annual holidays - in their car of course - and believe its their right to drive everywhere along the coast.

The only sane way to travel the CdA at the moment is by train. Maybe you could lend your car to a friend? That way its their problem parking, not yours.

Cheers
NiceLife

Ah . . . traffic. I'll never forget the very first time we visited the Riviera the first of July. We were driving down from Switzerland and planned a quick hop on the Autoroute. We zipped to Lyons and met TOTAL gridlock. It took two hours just to circumnavigate Lyon on the Autoroute. After we finally got through Lyon, we crawled at about 25 km per hour (at best) all the way south. At mealtime, traffic absolutely halted. People were having picnics on the center divider and all throughout the rest stops. We shared a table with a couple Italian truck drivers who were quietly cursing French vacationers.

We were supposed to meet the fellow we were renting an apartment from at 7:00 PM and had started in time to do some sightseeing and then meet him easily. We tore into the place and parked illegally at about 7:15 PM. We had done no sightseeing and even got off the Autoroute once just to avoid the traveling hordes. I think we could have walked faster. Certainly a good horse would have beat us all south.

The entire time we were there, the traffic never let up. We decided we'd never go back in season again. We didn't. However, last year we were in Nice in November with a cold Mistral blowing so decided it would be fun to revisit Antibes. Bad mistake. It was a Sunday and everyone in Nice had decided to visit Antibes that same day. The traffic was just as bad on a cold day in November.

Our conclusion was that if you visit the Riviera, you take the train. If you don't take the train, stay away. We're not great Riviera fans anyway; much prefer the inland areas.

When we want to go swimming, we go west to the lovely uncrowded sand beaches between Canet Plage and St. Cyprien Plage. Copious free parking, lovely sand and often a good surf. It's just perfect . . . until the world discovers it.