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Biot
France > Côte d'Azur > Riviera > Antibes > Biot

Frequent buses connect Antibes with the village of BIOT, 8km to the north, where Fernand Léger lived for a few years at the end of his life. A stunning collection of his intensely life-affirming works, created between 1905 and 1955, can be seen at the Musée Fernand Léger, built especially to display them (daily except Tues: July–Sept 10am–12.30pm & 2–6pm; Oct–June 10am–12.30pm & 2–5.30pm; €4, €3 on Sun). The museum is just southeast of the village on the chemin du Val de Pome, stop "Fernand Léger" on the Antibes bus, or a thirty-minute walk from Biot's gare SNCF.

The village itself is extremely beautiful and oozes with art in every form – architectural, sculpted, ceramic, jewelled, painted and culinary. The tourist office, on place de la Chapelle, at the far end of the main street, rue St-Sébastien (July & Aug Mon–Fri 10am–7pm, Sat & Sun 2.30–7pm; Sept–June Mon–Fri 9am–noon & 2–6pm, Sat & Sun 2–6pm; tel 04.93.65.78.00, www.biot-coteazur.com), can provide copious lists of art galleries and glassworks (the traditional industry that brought Léger here, and which produces the famous hand-blown bubble glass). If you book well in advance you could stay at the very reasonable Hôtel des Arcades, 16 place des Arcades (tel 04.93.65.01.04, fax 04.93.65.01.05; €55–70), full of old-fashioned charm and with huge rooms in the medieval centre of the village. Its café-restaurant, which also doubles as an art gallery, serves delicious traditional Provençal food (closed Sun evening & Mon; €28 menu), or try the delightful salon de thé Le Mas Des Orangers at 3 Rue des Roses.


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