the Making of the Riviera
This is the first book devoted to the unsung American achievement of creating the summer season on the French Riviera: before the Americans arrived in the 1920s of the last century visitors came only in the winter.
The first important American to visit the Riviera was Thomas Jefferson in the eighteenth century. In the nineteenth century the eccentric James Gordon Bennett Jr., owner of the New York Herald, poured millions of dollars into making Beaulieu-sur-Mer a leading resort. But Cole Porter invented the summer season on the Riviera. He and his wife rented a house on Cap d'Antibes for two summers and invited the wealthy Americans Gerald and Sara Murphy to stay. The Murphys then invited Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. And thus was the new season launched.
Other personalities on the Riviera in the twenties included Edith Wharton, Isadora Duncan, Rex Ingram, Rudolph Valentino, Man Ray, Harpo Marx, James Thurber, Dorothy Parker, Ernest Hemingway, Josephine Baker, Sidney Bechet.
The Lost Generation created the Jazz Age, the Crazy Years.
Queen Victoria and the Discovery of the
In the Spring of 1882 Queen Victoria, at the age of 62, arrived for the first time on the French Riviera. That region, which she called a "paradise of nature", wrought a transformation to the last two decades of her life. Whenever she arrived on French soil her face lit up and she shed many of the inhibitions of her life in England. She came to the Riviera nine times, more often than to any other part of continental Europe. "Oh, if only I were at Nice, I should recover," she said as she was dying.
She spent much of her time on the
Riviera with her strange companions, her dour Scottish gillie, John Brown, the
subject of the recent film, "Mrs Brown", and her troublesome Indian secretary,
the Munshi, Abdul Karim. John Brown, who did not like the Riviera and who
thought Irish revolutionaries were plotting to assassinate the Queen there,
amazed the locals by wearing a kilt together with a topee. The courtiers
threatened to strike if Abdul Karim came to the Riviera, but he came
Guests included extraordinary European royalty, such as the reprobate Leopold II, King of the Belgians, who on his death-bed married a former prostitute, and his daughters, Louise and Stephanie, central characters in two of the greatest royal scandals of the nineteenth century.
The visits to the Riviera by the Queen
Empress Victoria, the monarch of what was then the most powerful empire in the
world, were important to the area and to France because they affirmed and
strengthened the Riviera's role as the leading holiday centre for the British,
for other Europeans and the peoples of the Americas. She showed the world that
the Riviera was not just a place for convalescence, but also for holidays.
The importance of her presence is shown
by the increase in visitors during the two decades of her visits, by the concern
of the French at the damage which would be done to the tourist industry if she
were to cancel her trip in 1899 because of bad relations between France and
Britain, by the many hotels, cafes and roads named after her and by the number
of statues erected to commemorate her.
The Queen stayed in Menton, Cannes,
Grasse, Hyères and finally in Nice. In Nice she stayed on two occasions in the
Grand Hotel and on three in the great fin de siècle Hôtel Excelsior Régina,
which was built with her needs in mind. There she received President Faure and
Empress Eugénie and Sarah Bernhardt performed for her. The Monarch had fun in
France and particuarly enjoyed throwing flowers at the young army officers at
the flower festivals. One of her ladies in waiting said that on the Riviera she
enjoyed everything as if she were 17 instead of 72. She described it in her
journal as "this beautiful country I so admire and love."
The book relates the places where the
Queen stayed and visited to the many buildings that are still there today.
The work is based on research in the
Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the Public Record Office and in archives in
the Alpes-Maritimes. It includes much unpublished material from the Queen's
journals, which give a unique insight into her character in the last years of
The book is lavishly illustrated in
colour and black and white. The illustrations include reproductions of
anti-British French postcards, with one of the Queen riding on a bottle of gin,
extravagant Belle Epoque posters and drawings of her activities.
The French Riviera - A History
Signed copies of books are also available from the English Book Centre, Valbonne, France.
Information and photographs kindly supplied by Michael Nelson Books
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