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here are all kinds of places to visit in and around Antibes to suit all tastes.

Literally on your doorstep at Les Trois Palmes is the Old Town with its narrow streets and quaint, flower bedecked houses.

There is a number of museums and art galleries just a couple of minutes walk away. The port, with its large yachts and cruisers, is also just a short stroll and well worth a visit.

Flower-bedecked houses

Perhaps because the houses in the Old Town are nestled together and most do not have their own gardens, it seems in places that the street and the walls of the houses become the gardens. Plants and flowers climb up around the faded shutters.

You should not leave Antibes without visiting the Safrenier Quarter, where the charm and tranquility of the Old Town are perhaps greatest.

In fact, the 10-minute walk from Les Trois Palmes through this area, along the Ramparts with beautiful vistas of the sea, past the Bastion Saint-André and down to the beaches of Ponteil and Salis is a delight.

The Picasso Museum

Picasso Museum (Château Grimaldi)

Just a two-minute walk from Les Trois Palmes and built in the 16th century on the former Greek Acropolis, the Château Grimaldi became a museum dedicated to Picasso after the great painter donated all the works he created there.

As an alternative to walking, why not take the petit train (little train) through the little streets to the provencal market, Port Vauban, the ramparts, Juan les Pins beaches and Salis beach

Picasso worked at the castle during the war and materials for painting were scarce so he painted on anything going. When he ran out of canvas he started on the walls!

The museum has since acquired further works by him, and artists from several major 20th-century trends are represented, including Gleizes, Léger, Atlan, Balthus, Germaine Richier, Ernst, Picabia, Miro, Modigliani, Hartung and Nicolas de Staël.

Antibes cathedral

Antibes Cathedral

Next to the Picasso Museum, the cathedral was built in the 12th century on the site of the Roman temple of Diana the hunting goddess. It has a 12th century Roman choir and an 18th century baroque nave.

Tower museum (Tour Gilli)

Very close to the provencal market and Les Trois Palmes and part of the old medieval walls of the city, the tower was lived in by the Gilli family, a family of fishermen, for more than a century and now houses popular arts and crafts of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Floral streets in the Old Town

The port and big boats

Antibes may not grab the headlines as a spot for the rich and famous, but it is probably not so much that they are not there, just that Antibes is where they go when they don't want to be seen. For evidence of this, just visit the port.

Antibes has continued its thousands' of years of history as a sea port by becoming the largest yacht and pleasure cruiser harbour on the Cote d'Azur. Take a walk down to Port Vauban from Les Trois Palmes (about five minutes) and inspect the many remarkably large and luxurious craft.

Fort Carré

Fort Carré (Square fort)

Just opposite Port Vauban on a promentory, the massive, star-shaped 16th fortress (but with a name that means 'square fort' in English!) is built on the ruins of the Roman Temple of Mercury. Napoleon Bonaparte was once imprisoned in the fortress. There is a very pleasant walk around it.

There are many places to visit just a few minutes' walk from Les Trois Palmes

Bastion Saint-André (history and archeology museum)

On the ramparts of the old town, the museum was originally a fort built by Vauban and now houses artifacts dating back to the 13th century BC from Antibes itself and from ships wrecked off its shores. If you want to know more about the Ancient Greek and Roman history of Antibes, this is the place to come.

You could also pass the Bastion Saint-André on your way to the Ponteil and Salis beaches. This stretch has wonderful views of the sea.

Peynet Museum

Dedicated to artist Raymond Peynet, who lived in Antibes. Peynet is known for his pretty, romantic images often to be found on Valentine's cards.