The A-list: Antibes

When we’re not going places, the thing I like best is planning to go places. After that, the thing I like best is musing about where our next home base might be. Mark and I have debated this ad nauseum without committing, except by accident with our sudden move to Montpellier during Covid. But the moment has come. The search is no longer theoretical. We’ve had an escalation of a previous neighbor problem, making us all too aware of all the other compromises we make to make Paris work. Which is a nice way of saying, you know, we don’t have to put up with this crap.

After March back at our Paris apartment storage unit/official address, we’re in Antibes for April, a place we’d previously considered moving to. Also on that older list was Aix, Arles, and Avignon. We recently went to Angers to check it out as a possibility. That was 2 weeks ago, a naive time our lives when we thought moving was in our farther future, while we slowly traveled around France and Europe this year. Back in those carefree days we’d planned to do a May road trip of the southwest, based out of Albi, winding up in Bordeaux. So what the hell, we’re going to do this search alphabetically. Because the next best thing to traveling randomly is traveling absurdly systematically. This is tongue in cheek of course. Kind of.

So what’s so great about Antibes? It’s on the sea and has one of the nicer beaches of the Cote d’Azur. The old town is very appealing with its warren of pedestrian streets and its fabulous market. It’s close to Nice and the excellent culture, health care, and transportation it offers. We love the surrounding back country area; it’s one of our favorites in France. But most importantly, it feels right. It has a spark that makes us happy to be here. Not to mention it’s sunny!

So while this about-face was unexpected, I’m not going into it kicking and screaming. This was a much needed kick in the ass to get us out the door and onto the next phase, whatever that winds up being. I’m looking forward to a whole new adventure!

Onward!

Maer