Le Rocher

Très agréable restaurant saisonnier de bord de mer. Le service est efficace et plaisant. Les lieux sont magnifiques. La carte est assez courte, mais offre des plats savoureux et bien cuisinés. Il est prudent de réserver dès son arrivée à la Plage de La Garoupe pour être sûr d’avoir un couvert.

I had the great fortune of being born and rasied in North Carolina, and every summer my family would take two or three (or more!) trips to the beach. We would stay anywhere frorm Nags Head to Emerald Isle. The beaches of North Carolina are big and sandy and there is ample space for all of the beach goers to spread out and enjoy the sun and swim in the Atlantic Ocean. In the immortal words of Joni Mitchell: Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you got ’til it’s gone! We may be in the south of France, folks (and, yes, it IS gorgeous and incredible) but an abundance of beach space there ain’t!
If you decide to go spend the day at Plage de la Garoupe in the company of people who drive Bentleys (we saw 2), Maseratti’s (1), and Ferraris (1 as well) do yourself a favor and don’t go down there in August unless you have a RESERVATION at one of the private beaches there. I have no idea how far out in advance you should try to get one, because we just went down there on the recommendation of one of the girls at the tourist information office in Antibes. She failed to mention the fact that a reservation is pretty much absolutely necessary if you want to enjoy the cove from the comfort of a chaise lounge with a nice umbrella over you. Absent a reservation we were left to try to stake out some space on the two square meters of public beach that is there. I managed to squeeze us into a bit of space where we could get our two towels spread out and pull the stroller up next to us, and the boy set out to play in the water and build a sand castle.
Here’s then part where Le Rocher comes in, thanks for staying with me… Le Rocher offers take away items for the likes of us who have to slum it in the public area. I got a nice toasty ham and cheese pannini for 5 euro, and a lemon crêpe for dessert, also 5 euro. If you don’t bother yourself with annoying thoughts like the dollar /​euro exchange rate, these are very reasonable prices all things considered. Le Rocher does offer sit down service with a wait staff who appeared to be hustling. The sit down dishes ranged in price from 16 — 36 euros. The seats were all full and everything I saw being delivered to the tables looked quite yum and they did not skimp on the portions. If I happen to be back down that way (which is unlikely on this beach trip) and I was up for a sit down lunch, I would definitely give it a try.
Just remember: RESERVATIONS for the private beach!!!