Fodor's Expert Review Commune Libre du Safranier

A few blocks south of the Château Grimaldi, aka the Picasso Museum, is the Commune Libre du Safranier, a magical little neighborhood with a character (and mayor) all its own since 1966 (it's not technically a part of Antibes). The commune even holds its own festivals throughout the year, celebrating a variety of things like chestnuts, grape harvests, and the Christmas Yule log. Not far off the seaside promenade, Rue de la Touraque is the main street to get here, and you can amble around Place du Safranier, where tiny houses hang heavy with flowers and vines, and neighbors carry on conversations from window to window across the stone-stepped Rue du Bas-Castelet.