Explorer Antibes

Antibes Cathedral, also called Notre-Dame-de-la-Platea, is the largest church in Antibes and was the seat of a bishop from the 5th century until 1244. Its façade was rebuilt after the siege of 1746–1747; the carved doors of 1710 show Saint Roch and Saint Sebastian, and inside hangs a Rosary altarpiece painted by Louis Bréa in 1515.

Port Vauban is the harbour of Antibes, a natural anchorage used since Greek and Roman times and fortified in the 1680s by Vauban and his engineer Antoine Niquet. Today it is a marina with about 1,500 berths that takes yachts up to 150 metres long. Its quays run from the walls of the old town to the foot of Fort Carré.

The Jardin botanique de la Villa Thuret is a 3.5-hectare botanical garden on Cap d'Antibes, created in 1857 by the botanist Gustave Thuret to test exotic plants in the Mediterranean climate. Now run by the research institute INRAE, it holds about 2,500 trees and shrubs from regions such as Australia, South Africa, California and Chile.

Notre Dame de la Garoupe is a chapel on top of the Garoupe plateau on Cap d'Antibes, beside the Garoupe lighthouse. Its two naves hold two statues of the Virgin, one of them Notre-Dame de Bon Port, patron of Antibes sailors, along with about 300 ex-votos from 1506 onwards, frescoes of 1948 and 1953 and a gilded altarpiece of 1710.

The Palais des Festivals et des Congrès is the convention centre at the western end of the Croisette in Cannes, opened in 1982 to designs by Hubert Bennett and François Druet. It hosts the Cannes Film Festival each May; outside, visitors can climb its 24 red-carpeted steps and follow the Chemin des étoiles, a trail of about 150 film stars' handprints.