Biot: The Village I Used to Walk To
Some places you discover on holiday.
Others become part of your life without you really noticing.
For me, Biot is one of those places.
There was a time when I lived on a golf course not far from the village. I could walk into Biot, which meant that it wasn’t somewhere we went for a special occasion. It was simply somewhere we went.
And that makes all the difference.
In the evenings, there was Café Brun, a little bar and restaurant where friends would sometimes take out their acoustic guitars and play. Nothing formal. No stage. No grand production.
Just people sitting together, having a drink, listening to music and enjoying the evening.
Those are the memories that stay with you.
Then there was Les Arcades, where my family used to go for dinner. The restaurant is still there today, with an art gallery underneath it, and it has retained that rather wonderful Biot quality of being good without needing to be expensive or fashionable.
It is well known, but it has never felt as though it was trying too hard to be.
That, to me, is Biot.
A little tucked away.
A little artistic.
Very French.
And remarkably easy to love.
A Village With a Life of Its Own
Biot is often mentioned alongside Valbonne, partly because they are so close and partly because both are beautiful hill villages surrounded by the landscape of the Côte d’Azur.
But they don’t feel the same.
Not at all.
Biot is smaller and, to my mind, has a slightly more intimate feel.
It has also retained a stronger sense of traditional French village life.
You hear different accents, see familiar faces, and there is a sense that people aren’t simply passing through.
The village has its own daily rhythm.
The bakery.
The little shops.
The cafés.
The market.
The restaurants.
The galleries.
The people who have lived there for years.
It is the sort of place where you can go out for one thing and end up spending half the morning there.
And perhaps that is part of its charm.
The Village on the Hill
Biot’s setting is another part of its appeal.
The old village sits above the surrounding countryside, with narrow streets and stone buildings climbing the hillside.
And then, almost unexpectedly, the landscape opens out.
From certain points, you get views across the hills towards the Mediterranean.
It is close enough to the coast to make a morning at the beach entirely spontaneous, but sufficiently inland to feel removed from the busier coastal strip.
That position is one of Biot’s great advantages.
You are not choosing between village life and Riviera life.
You are choosing where you want your Riviera life to begin each day.
And Then There Is the Glass
There is no getting around Biot’s extraordinary relationship with glass.
The village has been associated with glassmaking for generations, and its distinctive bubble glass has become part of Biot’s identity.
Walk around the village and you find the influence everywhere: workshops, galleries, decorative pieces and artists continuing a tradition that has become synonymous with the town.
It gives Biot something quite different from many of the other villages around it.
Its artistic character isn’t simply historical.
It is still part of the place.
You can walk through the village and actually see people making things.
That matters.
Why Buy a Home in Biot?
This is where Biot becomes particularly interesting from a property perspective.
It offers something that can be difficult to find on the Riviera:
A genuine village atmosphere combined with very practical access to the rest of the region.
Depending on where you live, you can be close to:
Antibes and Juan-les-Pins for the beaches.
Sophia Antipolis for work and business.
Cannes for restaurants, events and the international calendar.
Nice for the airport and city life.
And the A8 for getting further afield.
Yet you can come home to Biot and feel as though you have left all of that behind.
For someone buying a second home, that can be wonderful.
For someone relocating permanently, it can be even more important.
What Kind of Property Can You Find?
Biot offers a rather interesting mixture.
Within and immediately around the historic village, you find character properties — stone houses, village homes, renovated apartments and buildings with history.
Move further out and the possibilities change.
There are villas in established residential areas, often with gardens and swimming pools, as well as more contemporary properties.
Some homes are tucked into the greenery.
Others make the most of the hillside and views.
And because Biot extends beyond the old village itself, buyers aren’t limited to one particular style of living.
You can have the convenience of being close to the village without necessarily wanting to live right in its centre.
That distinction is important when looking at property here.
A Place That Works for Families
Biot also makes sense for people who aren’t simply looking for a pretty weekend destination.
Its location near Sophia Antipolis makes it particularly practical for families and professionals.
The surrounding area has international schools, technology companies, research organisations and a substantial international community.
Yet Biot itself has managed to retain a character that is distinctly its own.
You can spend the day in one of Europe’s major technology hubs and be home among old stone walls and olive trees in minutes.
That juxtaposition is very Riviera.
The Coast Without Living on the Coast
There is a tendency when looking at French Riviera property to start with the sea.
How far is the beach?
Can you see it?
Can you walk to it?
And, of course, those things matter to some buyers.
But Biot makes a good argument for thinking about the question differently.
What if you could drive down to the sea whenever you wanted, but didn’t have to live with the traffic, noise and density that come with being directly on the coast?
You might have a garden.
A swimming pool.
A terrace.
Birds in the morning.
And still be in Antibes for lunch.
That is a very different kind of Riviera property.
Biot and Valbonne: Close, But Not the Same
Biot and Valbonne are close enough that it is easy to put them in the same category.
I wouldn’t.
They each have their own personality.
Valbonne has developed a particularly international feel over the years, with a large community of British, Dutch, Swedish and other international residents.
Biot, while certainly not isolated from the international world around it, has retained more of a French village character.
It is a subtle difference.
But if you spend time in both places, you notice it.
And for some buyers, that distinction may be important.
We’ll explore Valbonne properly in our next newsletter.
Because if Biot is the village I remember walking into for an evening with friends or dinner with my family, Valbonne has a rather different story to tell.
And it deserves to be told separately.
What I Like About Biot
Perhaps after all these years, what I like most about Biot isn’t one particular building, view or restaurant.
It is the fact that it has never seemed to need to reinvent itself.
It has changed, of course.
People have moved in. Shops have changed. Restaurants have come and gone.
But the village still has that same underlying feeling.
You can sit outside somewhere in the evening and, for a moment, forget how close you actually are to some of the busiest and most glamorous places on the Côte d’Azur.
That is a rare quality.
And it is one of the reasons I understand why people fall for Biot.
Biot as a Home
For the right buyer, Biot isn’t about buying into a famous Riviera name.
It is about buying into a way of life.
A village where you can walk for coffee.
A house where you can have a garden.
A short drive to the beach.
Sophia Antipolis close enough for work.
Antibes close enough for an evening.
Nice Airport within practical reach.
And, perhaps most importantly, somewhere that still feels like itself.
For me, Biot will always have that personal connection.
I remember walking there.
I remember the music at Café Brun.
I remember family dinners at Les Arcades.
And I think that is what makes places like Biot so interesting.
You don’t necessarily fall in love with them because of one spectacular thing.
You fall in love with them because of a hundred little things.
And eventually, they become part of your own story.
Finding Property in Biot
At Carlton International, we believe that local property knowledge means knowing those little differences.
Which streets feel most connected to the village.
Which residential areas offer more privacy.
Where the views open up.
Where you can have a garden.
How easy it is to get to Sophia Antipolis.
And which property might look beautiful online but feel completely different when you actually arrive.
Our role is to help buyers understand Biot before they decide to buy in Biot.
Because the right Riviera home isn’t necessarily the most expensive one, the newest one or the one with the biggest view.
It is the one that fits the life you want to live.
Carlton International
Whether you’re looking for a permanent home, a second residence, an investment property or a rental, Carlton International brings local knowledge of the French Riviera and the communities that make it special.
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Coming Next
We’ve stayed in the hills for another chapter.
But our next stop is somewhere very close by.
Valbonne.
It may look, on the map, as though it belongs in the same story as Biot.
Spend a little time there, however, and you’ll discover that it has a personality all of its own.
Next time, we’ll tell that story.
