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There now follows a self-guided walk and a map of the entire route can be found at Antibes master map. The starting point for this walk is the railway station. The Tourist Office is very close by at 42 Avenue Robert Soleau and this might be a useful diversion to pick up a map and other useful information. Also, they arrange guided walking tours of the town, one of which is the painters walk covering much the same route as taken here. However the tours are only on selected days and conducted in French and you should contact the very helpful staff in advance of your visit to check on times and availability.
The railway station is a rather unimpressive edifice
with little indication of the architectural delights to come. However,
as soon as you leave the building you will see, just beyond fairly
recent buildings to the left, the forest of masts and rigging of vessels
anchored in Port Vauban. Make your way down to the quayside and walk in
the direction of the old town to the right along Avenue de Verdun. When
you get to the point where there is an open area to the right in front
of the town walls with a long wooden structure beneath beautiful pine
trees, turn to look at the marina with Fort Carré beyond.
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This is an approximate location for Pêcheurs de coquillages à Antibes (1) by Felix Ziem. It is now almost impossible to visualise the scene captured in this delightful painting of a few locals gathering shellfish on the seashore with the lighthouse on the right and a suggestion of the rocks below Fort Carre on the left with just a hint of snow-capped peaks in the distance. The bay is now completely dominated by the massed ranks of private yachts and cruisers from the merely expensive to the playthings of billionaires. The original waterfront has long since disappeared beneath this almost insane collection of floating affluence but a little sanity is restored by the clank of petanque balls and associated jollity taking place on the dusty Esplanade Pré des Pêcheurs beneath the trees. The name at least is an echo of a not-too-distant past when the major occupation hereabouts was fishing.
If you now ascend the steps onto the old town walls you will get a better view of the port and Fort Carre which has provided a motif for generations of painters, not least Eugène-Louis Boudin. He probably positioned himself behind the beach at the base of this wall to paint Antibes, Fort Carre, 1893 (2) (Private collection). If only the stones could talk what a tale the walls of Fort Carre could tell!
Now descend the town wall and make your way past the Porte Marine along Quai Henri Rambaud until you see an entrance through the wall on the right to Plage de la Gravette. It was from this beach that Paul Signac painted Antibes, The Towers in 1911 (3) (Private collection). The view remains much the same although a more recent building makes it difficult to find the exact spot where he set up his easel. However, the building that distracts slightly from the otherwise recogniseable scene was the final home of Nicolas de Staël and it was from this building that he threw himself into the street below to commit suicide. A breakwater of rocks is either a recent addition or the artist chose not to include it in his picture. The cape in the distance is still topped by the distinctive tower of the Phare de la Garoupe although this has now been joined by a rather less attractive communications mast. 
We are now going to take a short diversion from the water’s edge. Retrace your steps to the Porte Marine and walk up Rue Aubernon to Cours Massena home of the daily market that takes place beneath an elegant metal and glass canopy. Where the Rue Sade joins the square you will find a panel showing Le marché du Cours Massena à Antibes (4) by Emile Charles Dameron. This is a lithograph now housed in the Bibliothèque de Cessole in Nice. A little known artist outside France, he was a prolific recorder of everyday life in the 19th century and although the stalls are no longer arranged beneath a canopy of trees, many of the elements of the scene remain much the same and he would instantly recognise it. The same cannot be said of the costumes worn by both the stallholders and the array of locals and tourists who still find the draw of a market irresistable.
Now leave the market place on the other side and make your way up the steps and then into Rue Laporte. To the left you will see the Musée Picasso which is an absolute must-visit either now or on your return from the walk, depending on the opening times. The cathédrale which is close by is also worth a look. However, for the moment, follow your nose to the sea and the Promenade Amiral de Grasse and turn right. After a few minutes you will come to the Bastion St. André where you can either ascend the ramparts for more fabulous views or visit the Musée Archéologie which is housed beneath. Before making your choice you will see an information panel showing Pêche de nuit à Antibes (5) by Pablo Picasso, painted in 1939 (MOMA, New York). Although the panel is rather damaged, the distinctive twin towers of Antibes can be seen in the top left but otherwise this is a joyful and exuberant work of the imagination that has little to do with topographical accuracy.
Take the footpath up the side of the museum which brings you into the Place Albert 1er, avoiding the petanque players making the most of the dusty open space . You will soon find another information panel showing a work by Henri-Edmond Cross called simply Antibes (6), painted in 1908 (Musée de Grenoble, France). The area has been extensively landscaped to provide a spacious promenade and so the view is slightly different, but the profile of the old town is unmistakeable and the distant snow-capped mountains are unchanging. It would be difficult to imagine a sailing vessel coming into the rock-strewn shore as it is now – possibly artistic licence at work.
Carry on a little further to the next promontery and the Jardin de l’Ilet and here there are another two information panels. The first shows a work by Eugène Boudin called Le port d’Antibes (7) from 1893 (Musée des Beaux Arts Jules Chéret, Nice). He painted this same scene several times with subtle variations of light and atmosphere and although the appearance of the ramparts have changed in places he would instantly recognise the view today. However, he would no doubt be dismayed by the appearance of the far coastline which is now almost entirely consumed by developments spreading out from Nice but the foothills and mountains would be reassuringly familiar. This was a favoured spot for the artist and he painted the view in almost every direction from here – he must have been an almost permanent feature during the spring of 1893.
The other panel shows a painting in naive style by Raymond Peynet entitled Les amoureux aux ramparts (not shown here) painted in 1985 which shows a pair of newly-weds posing with this impressive backdrop and surrounded by doves and a cherub. There is a museum in the town devoted to this artist’s life and work. Signac also made use of this vantage point to paint several canvases including Le Port d’Antibes, le soir (8) from 1911 (Musée d’Art Moderne et Contemporain, Strasbourg).
Before we proceed to the Plage du Ponteil for works by Monet and Meissonier there is a short diversion to see a painting by a rather less well-known painter, Henri Harpignies. At the roundabout behind the beach take the Boulevard du Cap and after a short walk uphill you will find an information panel on the left showing Antibes (9) painted in 1888 (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux). As with many of his works, trees are a principal element in his composition but the scene today is completely transformed. In his painting the old town is set in a rural context with snowy peaks in the distance. Today the countryside has been consumed by recent developments catering for the tourist trade and attendant motor traffic. The trees are now mainly palms set in manicured green spaces and the artist would, I’m sure, be rather bemused by the scene.
Now return to the footpath behind the Plage du Ponteil and you will find a further two information panels. The first shows Antibes, effet d’après midi (10) by Claude Monet also painted in 1888 (Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). It is interesting to speculate if he and Harpignies discussed their work, as they were both here at the same time. For Monet it was a highly productive period and he would have several canvases on the go at the same time. A rather undistinguished beach cafe now occupies the rocky promontory on the left and modern developments have now impinged on the picture but the old town is much the same and the distant mountains lend an unchanging element to the scene. It is difficult to ignore the urban sprawl that now spreads along the coastal strip and up into the foothills. Interestingly there is a slight anomaly in this picture which includes ‘afternoon effect’ in its title, in that at this time of day the shadows are projected from left to right which is not the case in the painting.
The other panel takes us back another twenty years to 1868 when Jean-Louis Meissonier painted Antibes, la promenade à cheval, l’artiste et son fils Charles (11) (Musée d’Orsay, Paris). The unmistakeable twin towers, ramparts and Bastion St. André are all there but the extensive fortifications in the centre of the picture have gone as has the open countryside behind the beach on the left, all swallowed up by new building. This is as much a piece of social commentary and self-publicity as anything with the successful artist and his son astride their impressive steeds looking down on the local peasantry amidst the controlled landscape, projecting a sense of strength and the continuity of the established social order.
Continue to walk along the promenade behind the beach and then past the sailing school and you will come to Plage de la Salis. At the end of this is Port de la Salis, now chock-a-block with pleasure craft but once a quiet fishing quay and another favoured spot for artists. There are wonderful views back to the old town with the foothills and mountains beyond. The scene was captured by Boudin in his 1893 painting Antibes, vue prise de la Salis (12) (Private collection). 
Follow the road round to the left after the port along
Boulevard de Bacon and you will be entering the rather exclusive world
of the Cap d’Antibes. After a short walk you will come to Pointe Grenille where you will find two rather battered information panels showing works by Claude Monet painted from the same spot. The first is Matin à Antibes (13) (Philadelphia Museum of Art) and the other Antibes vu de la Salis (14) (Toledo Museum of Art) both from 1888. Both are evocations of a hot day with the buildings of the old town and mountains beyond shimmering in a haze of blue, lavender and pink. 
As he wrote to his friend Auguste Rodin, “I’m fencing and wrestling with the sun. And what a sun it is! In order to paint here one would need gold and precious stones.”
Although the tree framing the pictures on the right is not to be found
and if you ignore the sound of traffic on the road behind you and turn a
blind eye to the urban sprawl and the presence of billionaires nautical
fancies, then you will looking at a scene that Monet would instantly
recognise and one that provided him with so much inspiration. The two paintings clearly demonstrate the artist’s practice of capturing the exact same scene at different times of day.
It is difficult to resist walking along this stretch of coastal road where one delightful view is constantly replaced by another. It was obviously a temptation that Monet and other artists couldn’t ignore either as is shown by his painting Antibes (15) (Courtauld Gallery, London) amongst many others. At some point it is necessary to return from whence you came but there is another detour to take in the view from Notre-Dame de la Garoupe.
Walk back to Port de la Salis and on the left you will see a stepped roadway called Chemin du Calvaire which is a pilgrim’s path with little shrines showing the Stations of the Cross up to the Chapelle de la Garoupe. The plateau is also the site of the Phare de la Garoupe which is a distinctive feature in many paintings, some of which have been studied en route. The area is also the location of many exclusive villas and private estates with beautifully maintained gardens behind high walls and fences. A century and more ago the place was much less manicured and was another favourite spot for artists to set up their easles. Of course Monet came here in 1888 and painted several canvases including Antibes vu du plateau Notre-Dame (16) (Boston Museum of Fine Arts).
