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Cote D'Azur: Inventing the French Riviera
The French Riviera, with its beaches, luxury villas and highstakes gambling, has been the world's favourite playground for more than a century, ever since a French poet gave this strip of land an indelible new the Cote d'Azur. Monte Carlo, Nice, Cannes, Cap d'Antibes and Saint-Tropez are synonyms for holiday pleasures both simple and refined. Queen Victoria; Coco Chanel; Picasso; Tobias Smollett; Fitzgerald, Huxley and the great, the dubious and the eccentric of every generation have made the Cote d'Azur their own. This social history shows how a string of fishing villages came to represent fantasy and escape - a place for a dream of pleasure. Mary Blume describes the Cote d'Azur, enhanced by interviews with those who frequented the Riviera in its heyday, and with its modern players. Contemporary images and photographs bring to life a fabulous locale, to which the famous and infamous, the gifted and notorious came to live their own myths.
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1992
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 28, 2026
The beginnings of the French Riviera started with the usual ingredients: outlandish personalities, some scandal and some loss of lives.
In a day when Paris was still the toast of Europe, the shoreline of southern France was grazed by herds of sheep. The sheep herders had suntans that only poor laborers had.
Nice became the first beauty on the beach. Then Cannes sold itself as the source of sun and Monte Carlo, the source of sin. Kathleen Kennedy, the sister of the future president of the United States was killed in a plane crash off the coast of southern France in 1948.
As one author wrote, "All the madmen and madwomen on earth are there," including the ghost of Greta Garbo.
In a day when Paris was still the toast of Europe, the shoreline of southern France was grazed by herds of sheep. The sheep herders had suntans that only poor laborers had.
Nice became the first beauty on the beach. Then Cannes sold itself as the source of sun and Monte Carlo, the source of sin. Kathleen Kennedy, the sister of the future president of the United States was killed in a plane crash off the coast of southern France in 1948.
As one author wrote, "All the madmen and madwomen on earth are there," including the ghost of Greta Garbo.
July 12, 2020
A favorite topic to read about but didn't love this book.
The tone came across as cynical and depressing which may just be a reflection of the state of the Riviera at the time the book was written, but it was a downer. Also, Blume mentions a lot of people without providing brief biographical information to introduce them and give context. The map was next to worthless. I spent more time looking up people's names and detailed maps than I did reading the text of the book.
The tone came across as cynical and depressing which may just be a reflection of the state of the Riviera at the time the book was written, but it was a downer. Also, Blume mentions a lot of people without providing brief biographical information to introduce them and give context. The map was next to worthless. I spent more time looking up people's names and detailed maps than I did reading the text of the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews