Anyone about to drive to the South of France and feeling a bit worried?

Yeah, all ok thanks. 10 degrees cooler than yesterday (25C instead of 35) due to the smoggy sky but not strongly smoky just a faint whiff so it’s fine. We’re heading back up northwards today - I don’t know how long it will take us to be out of the affected zone.
Someone said Bordeaux airport might soon be affected but it wasn’t sure. Still flying this morning anyway.

Well actually there are several fires atm ( 20 active on the fire map.)But you likely won’t see them as you will be on the A8 once you get south ( assuming you are taking the fastest route.)
You might see some smoke

We’re on the road now heading back up and have just counted 10 army trucks bringing personnel towards the south(west). They are definitely worried about the fires: government advice is not to go on holiday in the Gironde at all, and the SNCF is refunding or rebooking train journeys likely to be affected.

That said, there’s no sense of panic on the roads. Just stopped at a forested picnic area where there was a sign saying no barbecues due to risk of fire but apart from that all seemed normal. A good few other cars stopped off, no obvious climate refugees!

I suppose what might worry me is the chance of fires breaking out elsewhere, it's just so bone dry at the moment, perfect conditions and no sign of serious rain.

Antibes is more like 600 miles away from the fires in the Bordeaux region that are receiving all the coverage!

My sister is a "pompier" (firefighter+) about 200km NE of Cap Ferret - she has holidayed in that area and knows the area. I had a 3hr chat with her yesterday. The pool filters in her swimming pool are black from the particulates in the air over the last few days so air quality is a problem but it does depend on which way the wind is blowing at any particular time. She says no part of the fire has been brought under control so far - she described it as "terrifying". She sent a short message tonight to say some progress has been made today but it's a very fragile situation. So... air quality is something to think about too.

There are smaller fires in the Var, but I don’t think they’re comparable. Fires happen every summer.
(For all the talk of climate change, it’s worth noting that people have been arrested for deliberately started several of these fires. Just pointing that out)

Ah right, so the point was that Antibes is 60 miles away from A fire, not THE fire.

Yep. And "a" fire is not at all unusual in that region at this time of year. Especially when you have crazies starting them deliberately! The multiple fires southwest of Bordeaux are a different thing (even though some of those were also started by people) because they've joined together to become a massive, uncontrolled fire which is so big it has created its own weather, if I have understood the explanations I've read about it: at a certain point, fires or volcanic eruptions or similar can create a type of cloud called a "flammagenitus cloud,[1] also known as a flammagenitus, pyrocumulus cloud, or fire cloud", which makes the fire even more uncontrollable. It's more common in the US (says Wiki), but that's what's now happening in the Bordeaux region:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flammagenitus_cloud

I know thanks, that's why I was surprised that someone was saying that Antibes was only 60km away from fire. For me the focus of concern was on the South West where things had clearly gotten out of hand and that's really the other side of the country from Antibes.

True, and it's also worth bearing in mind it's only a relatively small part of the south West where things have got out of hand...though I'm not denying it's been dreadful for those in the locality and not fun for those downwind.

We're technically in south West France and it's had zero impact at all apart where we are apart from some delays a few days ago to some trains that were routing to places like Paris via Bordeaux.

Antibes is fine. Var is suffering a bit, but even in Var ourselves we've not been directly affected at all yet.

Bordeaux is a bit of a different story, but you'll be fine. Enjoy, it's beautiful.