Cap d'Antibes

This little bit of the Riviera is home to the super-rich. The only place better in this respect – I am told – is Cap Ferrat, which is for the super super-rich.

There are two places on the Cap d’Antibes where you can gain some idea of how the rich once lived – apart from peeking through powered gates as they swing open for the cars and vans of the host of tradesmen who maintain the vast gardens and chateau-like villas of these super-rich.

The first is at the now rather down-at-heel Villa Thuret where the attraction is in the form of the gardens laid out in the mid to late eighteen hundreds by the botanist Gustave Thuret, who introduced trees from all over the world previously unknown in France. Gardens is an understatement: what you can see are acres of mighty trees, many that Thuret and his successors grew from seed. The ground in which these trees stand is now somewhat wild, but has an attraction all the same, because you can get some idea of the areas of land on which the villas built in the eighties – and being rebuilt now – stand. And you can see it for free in all its tranquillity.

Eilenroc, in the picture, a villa in a similar sized estate, designed by Charles Garnier, architect of the opera houses of Paris and Monte Carlo, still retains the aura of the years from the 1850’s up until 1939 when an American, Beaumont, was the owner and host to royalty and celebrities from all over Europe. It was named after his beautiful wife, who gave it in trust for the benefit of Antibes. The estate is an anagram of her name, Coreline. It is open to the public, each Wednesday, free of charge. The views across the bay of Juan-les-Pins are some of the most memorable on this coast.

Yet again, Envibus took us there – and back – for €1 each.

And once again, we sat in the sun and watched the boules players who play petanque as many bowls players do, talking more than playing, with facial expressions that tell you what ill fortune befell them and how the victors had all the luck. Why I compare then with bowls players alone I am not sure. The scene is the same for the players of all games.