Vacances de la Toussaint, Part 2: A Rainy Afternoon in Antibes

Even though today was one of the rare rainy days on the Côte d’Azur, Helen and I decided to spend a few hours in Antibes. We took a train that arrived around 11 am and spent the first two hours walking around and seeing the harbor, a statue, and the beach.

We decided to eat lunch at one of the restaurants that I remember from my first time in Antibes during my year abroad in Paris. I remember having an amazing savory crepe with roasted vegetables, pesto, and pine nuts. The experience this time was disappointing. When we first arrived, all of the restaurant staff ignored us, leaving us guessing as to whether we should seat ourselves or wait to be seated. After seating ourselves indoors since it was still raining, we had to wait a long time for anyone to even bring us a menu and then wait again for someone to take our order. The restaurant wasn’t even that busy, but the waiters wouldn’t even look at us, which made catching their eye to ask for something difficult. When our food finally came, my crepe was good but not nearly as good as I remember it being last time, and Helen’s was very over-cooked. We wanted to try a sweet crepe, but after waiting for well over 20 minutes after our plates were cleared for someone to pay us any attention we gave up on dessert and asked for the check. Overall it was a very disappointing experience as the food was just OK and we felt completely ignored by the staff the whole time.

After eating, since it was still raining, we decided we would spend the rest of the afternoon in the Musée Picasso. However, when we arrived at the museum, the line for entry was out the door —probably at least 50 people long! It seemed that given the rain, everyone else had the same idea we did. We decided to visit the museum another day and take an earlier train home. 

On the way to get the train, we stopped in a bakery and got raspberry tarts to make up for missing out on dessert crepes at lunch. 

Even though things didn’t go perfectly for Helen’s first visit to Antibes, it was still a nice afternoon.  It was really nice to get to spend some time with Helen and whet her appetite for what Antibes has to offer.