Quite where Pablo would have put the sails, the tiller and the jib is anybody’s guess, but for adopted son of the Cote D’Azur Picasso it yacht to be Antibes.
Port Vauban, for those who don’t know, is the largest harbour in Europe and where the king of surrealism set up home.
And where he would have daily taken in the joys and sounds of the marina which has more than 1,500 moorings for yachts.
T’were Pab here today in France he might well pass Roman Ambramovich’s yacht moored here.
But being the poor painter that he was he’d have likely struggled to pay for a berth on the harbour, at €1m-€1.4m.
Art for sail
You’ll find Pab now down at the Grimaldi Castle.
Where you would have found him in 1946 working in his studio in the chateau.
Pab was living in nearby Golfe-Juan with Françoise Gilot.
Picasso was prolific in his time in Antibes, producing a portfolio of work, including Les Clés d’Antibes (The Keys of Antibes), covering an entire wall surface.
When the artist moved back to Paris, he left 23 paintings and 44 sketches in the Castle’s custody, the Picasso Museum.
Now that Antibes doesn’t figure on the most Instagram-worthy yachting destination in a study by comparison site InsureMy seems an oversight.
But it also means you can enjoy the harbour without having to dodge out of the way of selfie-takers.
Insta success
That said, there’s a reason why old favourites Sicily draws 17.4m Instas and Bodrum in Turkey 12.2m.
And Marseille along the coast from Antibes boasts 9.5m.
Pick your own fave out of this list, knowing only this that Antibes still holds pride of place as the marine capital of Europe.
With the added extra of it being the surreal thing for artists.
And if you’re looking for Picasso it yacht to be Antibes.
