Growing up in Cap d’Antibes.

Meet Auréa, a Cap d’Antibes resident.

Growing up in Cap d’Antibes is something Auréa knows a lot about. Auréa is 21 years old and lives with her parents near Plage de la Salis. Her father is from Brittany and her mother is Swedish. The family home is a lovely little self-renovated house built in the 1920’s. Much of it has been restored using reclaimed materials from Cap d’Antibes. Apparently the roof of the sunroom was made from old green-house panels which came from one of the many green-houses owned by the famous local rose growing family, Astoux.

Auréa is currently studying in Bordeaux so I caught up with her during her last visit home.

How long have you lived here?

I have lived in Cap d’Antibes for almost 15 years, we came here when I was 6 years old.

I was born in Tours, in the middle of France. Then we lived for a while in Tahiti, Paris and Sweden before coming to Antibes.

For the first year or so we lived in The Maupassant, an appartment block nearby, opposite Plage Salis. It was a small apartment on the top floor with 2 terraces and an incredible view.

We moved into this house in 2003.

What took your parents to Tahiti?

My parents had lived for 12 years in the mountains in Meribel and also a short time in Paris. They decided that they wanted a complete change of lifestyle so they bought three one way tickets to Tahiti.

We left Tahiti a year or so after to go back to France because my parents wanted me to be closer to the family. We lived in Sweden for a year and then in Paris again for a while before moving full time to Antibes.

Do you remember Tahiti at all?

No not really. Just a little. I can remember little things when I look at pictures. From photos I can remember my school and my friends and my house, our house was a dream house on stilts on the lagoon of Huahine, but that’s it. I also remember my parents taking me to school by boat every morning at dawn, however, I was very small when we lived there so it’s all a bit vague really.

What’s your earliest memory of Cap d’Antibes?

It was when we visited this house. We arrived and it was totally black and the garden was completely overgrown. It was a wreck but it was just amazing to think that we were going to live here, in this house. It was un-inhabitable when we saw it. I remember my parents saying that we were going to live here and that it was going to be beautiful. Then they spent many many years doing all the renovations themselves and now it is beautiful, just as they said it would be.

What was it like growing up in Cap d’Antibes?

Oh it’s so cool growing up here, especially when you are  young. It’s really cool to live here because you have the sea just at the bottom of our street and you have the forests just behind. You can go walking, you can go running, swimming or diving. My dad used to have a little Pointu so we used to go out on that sometimes too.

Away from the Cap you can also go skiing in the  mountains which are just 1 hr away. It’s just perfect. When you live in a big city it’s also cool but you don’t have all the things I just mentioned and also you don’t have the sun.

Did you spend a lot of time here?

Yes I spent  a lot of time here with my friends. For example on Chemin des Contrebandiers. I always used to  go there with my friends to jump from the rocks. At that  time there was nobody there, now there are a lot of tourists but back then there was nobody. We had the rocks all to ourselves and we used to spend many days just hanging out there. Only the people who lived in Cap d’Antibes knew about all the hidden little places on the tip of the Cap.

These days the end of the Cap is very well known and lots of people go there to rock jump so it’s not the same as it was when I was young. It’s still a beautiful place to go though and always less busy than the beaches especially in July and August.

Where is your favourite part of the house?

It used to be in the swing but my parents just finished fixing up the bottom of our garden, so now it’s there.

I saw it for the first time when I came on this visit. It’s so calm and peaceful down there, they have made it really beautiful. It’s a very chilled and quiet place to be so this is now my new favourire part of the house.

Where is your favourite place to be on the Cap?

Now, I think it’s the Phare de la Garoupe because of the new little bistro up there. It’s so nice. You have a beautiful view and you can drink a little coffee and there is the fresh air too. I really like that place, it’s beautiful.

What’s your favourite thing to do on the Cap?

Snorkeling I love to do that around here. You can see a lot of beautiful things in the water especialy near Olivette and around the Baie des Milliardaires.

Your favourite time of year?

June, because it’s the beginning of the summer so you feel all the excitement of the people here. There aren’t too many tourists yet so the beaches are still quite quiet. It’s also not so hot. June is also great because there are many organized events at this tme of the year. Things like the Voiles d’Antibes or the Déantibulations an also the Festival Nuits Carrées Everything is starting to come alive in June.

If you could live anywhere else, where would that be?

Well I haven’t seen everywhere so I don’t know, I really don’t know. I like cities like Barcelona but I think that I couldn’t live in a big big city. I would love to live in a city similar to Antibes, I don’t know where exactly but somewhere with a similar ambiance. It’s very chilled here, you can go out and party but it’s not too much of a party town either.

Anything you don’t like about Cap d’Antibes?

No not really, no. Maybe the mosquitoes as we have many here in the garden. It can also be too hot sometimes but then I guess I can go and cool off in the Sea so it’s not so bad.

You are currently studying in Bordeaux, why did you choose to study there rather than staying closer to home?

To do my studies I wanted to be in a big city where there is a lot happening. Here it’s cool but in Bordeaux you have everything on your doorstep, you have many museums, exhibitions, libraries. It’s alive all year round and full of culture. It’s better to be in a city for learning about life in general. You meet more people from different backgrounds so it’s good for opening up your mind to new things and experiences. If I had stayed in Antibes I would have had to study in Nice and I didn’t want to go to Nice. I don’t like Nice so much.

Do you miss being here?

Yes I do. I miss it a lot. I am going back to Bordeaux tomorrow and I really don’t want to leave. It’s always like that every time I come back.

After your studies will you come back to the Cap?

I am not sure but I do know that I’m going to live here eventually, I just don’t know when. This is definitely home for me. I have my parents and all my friends here and living here is what I am used to, it’s where I feel most comfortable.

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