The TRAVELER'S JOURNAL: July twenty-fifth, inventing the summer season in Antibes.

"On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, halfway between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel. Deferential palms cool its flushed facade, and before it stretches a short, dazzling beach." That's how F. Scott Fitzgerald described the Eden Roc hotel on the tip of Cap d'Antibes in the opening paragraph of his novel Tender is the Night. Winter sun seekers have gravitated to Antibes since Roman times, but it was Sara and Gerald Murphy, a rich American couple with some very fashionable friends, who invented the summer season in the 1920's. The Murphys convinced the Eden Roc's owner to keep the place open after its traditional April closing, and then they filled it with guests such as the Fitzgeralds, Picasso, Hemingway and Cole Porter.

Even today, one can visit the Picasso Museum in the Grimaldi Castle overlooking the old fishing village and see photos of them all cavorting on local beaches. Antibes became a magnet attracting artistic ex-patriots from all over. Some, such as author Graham Greene, made it permanent home.

More laid back than nearby Cannes or Nice, Old Antibes remains a gem. Its central market still fills each morning with vendors offering bright profusions of flowers, strawberries, white peaches and black olives. Roam its narrow streets and find tiny but exquisite restaurants. Antibes' marina bristles with white-sailed yachts. Even after 75 summer seasons, Antibes remains someplace just this side of paradise.

FMI For information, French Government Tourist Office, 212-838-7800 or www.francetourism.com

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