Biot: a village of glassmakers next door to Sophia Antipolis

Start with the numbers, because they show where Biot sits on the Côte d’Azur. In 2025 the DVF median for houses sold for €1M or more in Biot was €9,654 per square metre, on 21 sales, with a median sale price of €1,920,000. Location, age and condition move individual prices well above or below that figure. Buyers pay for the location and the way of life.

The picture is clearer year by year. Our DVF series covers houses sold for €1M or more, all of 100 m² or more: the segment our buyers look at. Apartments and lower-priced houses are not in it. They are the cheapest way in, and investors buy the smaller units to let. Houses cost more in total because of their gardens and private terraces.

Since 2021 the direction is up. The DVF median for these houses went from €6,053/m² in 2021 to €9,654/m² in 2025, a change of +59%. The path from year to year is uneven: €7,395 in 2023, €6,322 in 2024, €9,654 in 2025. Biot records only 10 to 22 sales a year at this price level, so one or two large houses move the median. Read the trend since 2021 before any single year. The revised PLU (Biot’s local urban plan) was approved in September 2025, and we expect it to support confidence through 2026, above all for new-build projects that meet the updated rules. Our Biot prices by sector for 2026 go further into each area.

One useful figure: DVF records 45 sales of houses sold for €1M or more in Biot from 2023 to 2025, about 15 a year. Apartments and lower-priced houses sell in larger numbers on top of that. At this level, each sale weighs on the median, and a good house at the right price still finds a buyer. For the yearly detail, see Biot house prices since 2021.

What you buy in Biot is an old village with shops, schools and Sophia Antipolis close by, 4 km from the sea.

Biot is too small for formal neighbourhoods, but its sectors differ in character and in how their markets behave. On the ground, we work with four main areas.

The village centre

This is Biot’s old village itself: narrow lanes, stone facades, the Place des Arcades with its restaurants and galleries, and the 15th-century Église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine. Most properties are older apartments in converted buildings. DVF records no house sale of €1M or more in the old village over 2021–2025: too few to publish a figure. Across Biot, the median for the same years is €6,905/m². You walk everywhere, and restaurants, galleries and weekend visitors are always there. It suits downsizers, couples without children and buyers who put village life before a garden.

Sophia border

The edge where Biot runs into the tech park, around Clausonnes. Properties are usually newer or recently renovated, and the jobs at Sophia are close. DVF records 14 house sales of €1M or more in the Clausonnes and Sophia lieux-dits over 2021–2025, at a median of €6,737/m², close to Biot’s €6,905/m² for the same years. You give up the medieval setting for convenience and modern facilities. Families with one or both parents working at Sophia often settle here. The cost is that you no longer walk to the old village.

Les Vignasses

A residential area with larger properties and more green space. Families like it for the gardens and room without being cut off in the countryside. DVF records only one house sale of €1M or more in Les Vignasses over 2021–2025: too few to publish a figure. Across Biot, the median for the same years is €6,905/m². British buyers often settle here: space for the children, a garden for weekend projects, and the village centre still only 10 minutes away on foot.

Near the former Marineland site

A little closer to Antibes and the coast. These properties suit families who want the beaches nearby (useful when grandchildren come to stay). The Marineland park itself closed in January 2025. It is not one of the sectors we map, so we publish no DVF figure for it. The village shops are further away and the area has less character of its own. It feels more suburban.

One fact runs through every conversation about Biot in 2026: Sophia Antipolis, the 2,400-hectare technology park on Biot’s doorstep.

Sophia Antipolis was founded in 1969 as Europe’s first planned tech park, and the experiment worked. Today it hosts about 2,500 companies and more than 40,000 jobs. The work spans artificial intelligence, biotechnology, connected vehicles and advanced telecommunications.

The list of names is long. Arm Holdings (the chip architecture company) has a large site. ETSI (the European Telecommunications Standards Institute) has its headquarters there. W3C (the World Wide Web Consortium, which sets web standards) runs an office in Sophia. Nearby Cannes hosts a large Thales Alenia Space site. From 27 to 30 October 2026, Sophia Antipolis and Cannes host the IASP (International Association of Science Parks) World Conference, which brings science park directors from around the world.

Sophia Antipolis staff who look at Biot usually want a village rather than a business-park suburb. A five-minute drive to work leaves you a 15th-century church down the lane, fresh produce at the Tuesday market and children who grow up next to potters’ and glassblowers’ workshops.

From its hilltop, Biot looks towards Antibes and the Mediterranean, 4km to the south

In 1956 the ceramicist Éloi Monod founded the Verrerie de Biot and developed "bubble glass": thick, textured glass with air pockets trapped inside that catch the light. It was a real artistic invention, and it changed Biot. The technique became the village’s signature and drew other glass artists and makers.

In 2026 Biot is home to dozens of artisans and artists: glassmakers, ceramicists, painters, sculptors and jewellers. The Fernand Léger Museum stands at the edge of the village, a modernist building devoted to the cubist painter that draws art historians and design lovers all year. On the Place des Arcades, the main square, galleries and workshops let you watch the artisans at work.

This matters for the village. It keeps Biot earning a living without depending on tourism alone, and it gives the place a cultural life of its own: your children grow up among people who make things with their hands. The Tuesday Provençal market (9am–1pm, Rue Saint-Sébastien to Place des Arcades) and the Saturday farmers’ market (9am–1pm, Place des Arcades) come from the same habits: local food, local producers, no chains.

Glassblowing is still at the centre of Biot’s identity, and artisans carry on Éloi Monod’s bubble glass

For families, the school often decides. Biot sits in an area with a wide choice of schools, with international options that suit most of the buyers we see.

CIV (Campus International de Valbonne)

The main one. The CIV is a state international school with 2,300 pupils on a 12-hectare campus. It serves Valbonne, right next to Biot, and draws families from all over the Côte d’Azur. The collège admits only pupils enrolled in an international section, and the lycée prepares the Baccalauréat Français International (BFI) in six sections: American, German, Chinese, Spanish, Italian and Russian. Because it is a state school, it charges no tuition for the French curriculum. Pupils in the American section get a French education and keep their English. Pupils come from many nationalities, so your child grows up in an international setting.

ICS Côte d’Azur

A bilingual primary school inside Sophia Antipolis. Expat families who want English-language teaching from the start like it. Smaller than the CIV, dearer, and more personal. It makes sense if both parents work at Sophia and want a short school run.

Les Colibris

Montessori teaching, in Biot, on the Sophia Antipolis side. For parents who believe in child-led, play-based learning, Les Colibris is an alternative to traditional French schooling. Expensive, and faithful to Montessori principles.

The Hive Academy

An American curriculum, in Biot itself. It suits American expat families and anyone who wants a North American education. Small, with high fees, and a personal setting.

Mouratoglou International School

For sporting families: school lessons combined with elite tennis and sports training under the Mouratoglou method. If your child is serious about tennis, it combines school and daily training on one campus, in Biot itself, on the Sophia Antipolis side.

Valbonne, Mougins and Grasse reach the same schools within a short drive. What Biot adds is the village. Your child cycles or walks to a medieval centre, goes to a school with pupils from many countries, and spends weekends at the markets and in the workshops. Not every family wants that, but those who do find it here.

Here is a week in Biot as a resident lives it. The children go to school. You drive to Sophia Antipolis or work from home. On Tuesday morning you are at the Provençal market, where farmers, producers and second-hand dealers fill the Place des Arcades. You buy tomatoes from the farmer you bought from last month, and you start to recognise faces. On Wednesday evening, the restaurant by the church has a good wine list and a chef who changes the menu with the seasons. Saturday morning is the farmers’ market: organic growers, olive oil, local cheese. Your child has a pottery lesson in a workshop while you shop. On Saturday evening there is an exhibition at the Fernand Léger Museum, or an open-air concert on the Place des Arcades in season. Sunday is quiet. A walk to a nearby village, or lunch at one of the hamlet restaurants in the hills above.

This isn’t city life, and it isn’t isolated country life either. It is small-town French life with the services and cultural institutions of an international region. Remote workers, families who want to step off the career treadmill, and retirees who want activity without pressure find it hard to leave.

Biot is close enough to the main roads and services that you are never cut off, and far enough to stay out of the traffic. The routes that matter:

• To Sophia Antipolis: 5 minutes by car via the D4. A daily commute that doesn’t wear you down.
• To Antibes old town (Vieille Ville): 15 minutes. Restaurants, beaches, summer crowds.
• To Cannes: 25–30 minutes via the A8 motorway. Fine for a day on the beach or an evening out.
• To Nice airport: 20–25 minutes via the A8. Close enough for regular travel.
• To Grasse (perfume town): 25 minutes. Cultural visits, markets.
• To Mougins (hilltop village, restaurants): 15–20 minutes.

Public transport exists but is limited. A local bus network links Biot to Antibes, Valbonne and nearby villages. The buses work if you are not in a hurry, but they run too rarely to be your main way to work at Sophia. Most households need a car. Healthcare is close: Antibes has a public hospital with an emergency department.

The revised PLU (Plan Local d’Urbanisme, Biot’s local urban development plan) was formally approved on 30 September 2025, after a public consultation. It matters because it sets the rules for new building and renovation for the next decade. The revisions are cautious. They favour small infill projects (filling gaps in existing neighbourhoods instead of spreading outwards), encourage renovation over new build in some sectors, and protect the medieval centre from tall buildings.

Projects under way or recently finished:

• Town entrance (requalification de l’entrée de ville): The approach into Biot is being redesigned as one of the commune’s listed projects.
• Maison du Verre and new crèche (DiaBiotins): Two small additions, a house devoted to glass and a childcare centre, rather than large projects. They serve the growing number of young families without changing the village.
• Voie verte (green way) and cycle lanes: A green way for walkers and cyclists is among the commune’s projects, alongside work on the Chemin de Saint-Julien. A cycle lane along the Route des Colles is under construction.
• Verger Saint-Eloi and communal vines: A communal orchard and communal vineyards, a nod to the village’s farming past.
• Hameau de la Brague: A project for the hamlet of La Brague, in the valley of the river of the same name.

These projects are small and slow on purpose. Biot is not about to become a building site. The PLU approval points to stability and planning ahead: the village is investing in its infrastructure and facilities at a pace that keeps its character.

Nobody buys a house in the abstract. People buy for reasons of their own, and with Biot buyers the same reasons come up again and again.

The British family (mid-career, young children)

Usually in their 40s, with one or both parents working remotely or running a business that doesn’t need them in London every day. Children aged 5–12. The CIV’s two-language teaching and the village draw them. They want a proper garden, a stone house with character, and schools good enough that the move costs their children nothing. Budget usually €600k–€900k. They buy to live, not to speculate, and they tend to stay 8–12 years before going back to the UK.

The Parisian couple (weekend house)

Paris professionals (law, finance, media) in their 50s looking for a second home for weekends and summer. They want restaurants and galleries within walking distance, not acres of land. An apartment in the village centre or a small house in Les Vignasses suits them. They watch quality more than price. Budget €400k–€700k. They are happy to let the property now and then to cover costs. For them, Biot is the way out of Paris on a Friday night.

The Sophia tech professional (commuter)

In their 30s or 40s, working at Arm, ETSI or another Sophia employer. Usually an expat (German, Dutch, British, American). The 5-minute drive to work counts for more than the look of the village, though they enjoy both. A modern apartment or contemporary villa on the Sophia side of Biot suits them. Budget €350k–€550k. Most are on multi-year assignments and will move on when the job ends, so they care less about the place itself and more about rental potential and an easy resale.

The retiree simplifying (older village house)

In their 60s or 70s, often moving down from a larger home. They want to walk everywhere, have things to do and spend little time on upkeep. A renovated 2–3 bedroom house in the centre suits them. Budget €400k–€650k. Many fall for the artisan community and spend their days in the galleries and workshops. They buy for the long term and for the way of life, not for capital growth.

The art world buyer (creative professional)

Painters, sculptors and designers who come for Biot’s artisan identity. Budgets vary (€250k–€1M+), but they share an eye and the need for a working studio. They buy a place to live and a place to work, among peers. Each one adds to the creative life of the village.

Each of these buyers wants a different Biot. All of them want a real village and none of them want a standard housing estate. That shared demand is what keeps the market steady.

Buyers rarely look at Biot alone. It sits among several sought-after Côte d’Azur villages, each with its own character and prices, and the comparison shows where Biot fits.

The Biot advantage: On DVF medians for houses sold for €1M or more, Biot sits close to Mougins and above Valbonne, and it has more character and a shorter drive to Sophia than the cheaper option (Grasse). Against Valbonne, Biot’s old village is more compact and perched. Against Mougins, Biot is smaller and quieter. Against Antibes, you stay away from the coastal crowds.

When Biot is the wrong choice: If the beach and coastal life come first, Antibes or Cannes makes more sense despite the price. If only Sophia Antipolis matters and village character doesn’t, Valbonne is slightly closer and built around the tech park. If price per m² comes first, Grasse is lower and has the services of a larger town.

When Biot is the right choice: You want real village life, and easy access to several places (Sophia, Antibes, Nice, the mountains). You like living among artisans and walking everywhere. Your children’s schooling matters more than being near a beach. You plan to stay 8+ years and see the house as a way of life more than an investment.

Sources

Sources used in this article:

• DVF (Demandes de Valeurs Foncières), data.gouv.fr for all property price and transaction figures.
• INSEE statistics for Biot (commune 06018) for demographic and economic context.
• Notaires de France for quarterly and regional market commentary.
• Mairie de Biot for heritage, planning and local references.
• ADEME DPE observatory for the energy-performance (DPE) data.

Published by La Reserve Research. Editorial governance and correction policy: editorial standards. Corrections: contact@lareserve.co.