If Old Antibes has a heart, it beats under the iron canopy of the Cours Masséna. Every morning the Marché Provençal fills with growers, cheesemongers, fishmongers and flower stalls — the kind of genuinely local market that has become rare on this coast.
When to go
From September to May the market opens every morning from Tuesday to Sunday; in June, July and August it opens every single morning, Mondays included. Stallholders set up early, and the hall empties at around 1 pm — closer to 1:45 pm in summer. Arrive before 11 for the full display.
Look for Provençal classics: tapenade and socca, goat cheeses from the hinterland, seasonal figs and strawberries, olive oils, and the flower stalls at the far end.
What fills the stalls
The stalls follow the seasons. Local growers bring their vegetables and fruit; cheesemongers and charcutiers come down from the mountains behind the coast; there are spice merchants, olive oils, jams and sweets, local wines, and bouquets of fresh and dried flowers, many of them grown inland around Grasse. There is a fish stall too, and a Corsican one.
This is a market people know by name. Regulars go by their first names — Steeve for the fruit and vegetables, Jacques for the cheese, Dominique for the flowers — and that is how residents shop here: the same stall, the same greeting, every week.
Afternoons: the artisans’ market
When the food stalls pack up, the hall changes trade. Painters, ceramicists and sculptors set out their work under the same canopy: on Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons from October to mid-June, and from Thursday to Sunday between mid-June and the end of September, when it stays open late into the evening.
Shop it like a resident
Every Absoluty house has a full kitchen precisely because of this market. Buy what looks best, add a baguette from Veziano and a bottle from a wine cellar in the old town, and dinner on your terrace is solved.
The market sits minutes from all our houses; several guests structure their whole stay around it.
Photo: Natalie Zepp Photography / Shutterstock.com
The bakery: Veziano
For bread, the old town has its institution: Veziano, on rue de la Pompe. The family has been baking here since 1924, and Jean-Paul Veziano’s sourdough loaves travel well beyond Antibes — to the Negresco in Nice, among others.
Come for a baguette, leave with a slice of pissaladière and the sweet Swiss-chard tourte, a Niçois classic the bakery still makes the traditional way.
Other markets around Antibes
A few steps from the hall, Place Nationale hosts a flea and antiques market on Thursdays and Saturdays — a different market on the same old square. On the third Sunday of each month a farmers’ market sets up on the Esplanade de la Garoupe, and in July and August evening markets of crafts and jewellery take over the Pré-des-Pêcheurs, by the port, and the seafront promenade of Juan-les-Pins.
Questions
Is the Provençal market in Antibes open on Mondays?
Only in summer. From September to May it is closed on Mondays and open from Tuesday to Sunday; in June, July and August it opens every morning.
What time does the Antibes market close?
Around 1 pm, and around 1:45 pm from June to August. Arrive before 11 for the full display.
Where is the Provençal market in Antibes?
Under the covered hall of the Cours Masséna, in the heart of Old Antibes — a few minutes on foot from all our houses.
Is there an antiques market in Antibes?
Yes: a flea and antiques market on Place Nationale, in the old town, on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Everything on this page is minutes from our doors.
Seven restored houses inside the old town — live availability, transparent prices, and your hosts two streets away.
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