It was near the end of our nine day stay in Antibes on the south coast that B and I made it to the port to check out the super yachts, off Quai des Billionaires. There were a lot of young kiwis and aussies staying at our campsite looking for work on the boats (thanks for the recommendation JP and Kate!). Chatting to a few of them as we hung out at reception using our laptops to pick up the wifi (which is very hard to get for free in France!) we found out that this year is hard going with the gloomy economy. Apparently the recruitment companies in town have 6,000 people on their books and only about 10 jobs! All the job seekers head down to the port at 6am in the morning, and cold call the boats, which can be very disheartening. We were looked on enviously as the hardest thing we had to do during our stay was figure out the 1 euro bus system!

Walking around the port after lunch we were dazzled by the bright white boats. They are huge, expensive and very shiny! Some of them have helicpoter pads, you can see doors opening out the bottom where there are jet boats and other play gear stored. One boat was covered with about 20 staff in the antibes uniform (biege shorts and crisp white shirt), who looked like tiny ants as they ran about scrubbing, sweeping and cleaning the back of the boat. B and I looked down on them from the old wall, which was made of cobbled bricks, a complete contrast to these super modern super yachts.

After we’d soaked up the money view, we rounded a corner in the old wall, and on the side opposite the port were little bays, filled with sunbathers. The sun here seems much softer than NZ, and the water of the med bright dark blue. The water also feels softer, I’m not sure if its because of all the salt in the water, or because I’m on holiday and everything is just amazing, but we had another lazy afternoon on the beach. With the old cobbled wall behind us with the terracotta rooves of the old town, the dark blue sea and soft light I felt like I was in a beautiful impressionist painting!

Before we left our camp we made it to another cheap and cheerful museum, this one the bonsai museum in Biot village, a small and charming little village perched on a hill side with tight winding cobbled streets. Biot is also famous for glass blowing, and we saw a lot of masters at work. We’ve noticed that as each region has its specialities in both trades and food, they are really skilled at a few things, rather than being ok at many. Like playing to your strengths, they know what they are good at and work at it. Hmmm, we’ll try to remember this when we head to the UK and start our job hunt.