PurbeckDavid49

By PurbeckDavid49

A walk on the Cap d'Antibes

The Cap is a promontory jutting southwards from the main Antibes-Juan-les Pins conglomeration.  The further south you walk on it, the more exclusive (and invisible) the Villas become.

Consider Le Château de la Croë.  It greeted Edward VII after his abdication with the Duchess of Windsor.  Other ex-royal visitors were the Italian King Umberto (he offered to buy the Château, but discovered that he didn't have the money - and exactly the same happened to King Farouk of Egypt! )   If royalty doesn't understand money, Greek shipping magnates certainly do: Aristotle Onassis and later Stavros Niarchos found the money.

This building is just outside the cluster of super-duper-rich Villas.  On the Boulevard John Fitzgerald Kennedy is the Villa des Chênes Vertes (green oaks) was built in 1866.  Its main claim to fame is that Jules Verne lived here for 6 winters and wrote several of his better-known books (including 'Around the World in 80 Days') here.  He was a prolific writer, producing about a hundred books in all.

Having reached the Boulevard and heading westward, two policemen approached us.  We were not permitted to walk here, we had to turn back and turn down towards the town.  They gave no explanation.  Other policemen were visible here as well. 

A day or so later we had worked out the probable explanation: Donald Trump's daughter had arrived in Antibes on that day - and was probably travelling by helicopter.

Sandbanks residents, eat your hearts out!

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