JUAN-LES-PINS, less than 2km from the centre of Antibes, is another of those overloaded Côte d'Azur names: the summer St-Moritz, the night-time playground for the extravagantly outfitted front-page myths who retreat at dawn, like supernatural creatures, to their well-screened cages on Cap d'Antibes. Until this century it was nothing more than a pine grove on the western neck of Cap d'Antibes. A casino was built in 1908 and by the late 1920s Juan-les-Pins had taken off as the original summer resort of the Côte d'Azur. Revealing swimsuits, as opposed to swimming "dresses", were reputedly first worn here in the 1930s. Now, like so much of the Côte, it's so overcrowded and overbuilt that it's impossible to see what all the fuss is about – or to imagine it as a pine forest.But its international jazz festival in the last two weeks of July is the best in the region and takes place in what's left of the pine forest, the Jardin de La Pinède (known simply as La Pinède), and Square Gould above the beach by the casino. This urban park and the 2km of sheltered sand beach are all that Juan-les-Pins has to offer for free, apart from the dizzying array of architectural styles along its streets.
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