An Introduction to Antibes

Antibes is between Cannes and Nice, on the South eastern coast of France.

                                                                                  Train map of the French Rivera

The French Rivera has a fantastic train route with trains running from Ventimiglia, Italy to Frejus, France, 37 stations in total, the railway runs along the coast with beautiful and not so beautiful views.

It is easy to base yourself in one of these towns and do any number of day trips.

The best time to visit in my opinion would be May or September as full summer temperatures, make exploring a lot more arduous.

I mention the below towns in bold and suggest researching the others, I have been to Monaco and Cannes on previous trips and prefer the smaller more old style towns, but they are of course worth a visit.

Frejus // Saint Raphael // Mandelieu la Napoule // Grasse // Juan les Pines // Golfe Juan Vallarius // Antibes // Biot (village) // Eze // Villefranche sur Mer // Beaulieu sur mer // Nice // Monaco // Menton // Ventimiglia

The trains are quite consistent with the exception of routes to Mandelieu and Grasse, pick up a time table from any station - I can never seem to find a copy online.

The timetables are double-sided so make sure you are going the right direction and beware of 'jours de ...tours' on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, the timetable changes.

The fares are quiet expensive if you are exploring every day, Antibes to Grasse was 12.50 Euro return for one person, having limited French we didn't attempt to purchase a card similar to an Oyster card, but perhaps this is an option.

An Isabella ticket (day tripper) was mentioned by the Guardian in their article from 2011 for 10 euros, but this has increased to 20 euros a day.

Buy your train tickets before you board, the ticket officers rarely come and check tickets, we only had our tickets checked once out of 10 trips, but the fine for not having a ticket, I believe is around 80 euro.

The trains are heavily air-conditioned with toilets and generally covered in graffiti.

ARRIVING INTO NICE

Flying into Nice, I generally get the 250 bus straight into Antibes - 8 euro and a 30 minute journey, again pre-purchase your ticket at the kiosk outside the terminal, it is tiny and badly sign posted, let the bus driver know you want to get off at Antibes, and they will stop on the main road behind the Gare / train station. (2a) see map below.

                                                                        Map of Antibes


Antibes Old Town is roughly the area between (10) (5) and (8)
Walking from the Gare (4) or bus station (2a) walk with the boats to your left towards (5), if you continue walking pass (5) this will take you to Millionares Quay, where the super yatches are docked, ignore the no entry signs.

Walking back towards (5) look out for the archways under the harbour ramparts, these lead to the plages - one is a tiny rock beach and the other is Plage de la Gravette, most beaches have fresh water showers on the beach.  You can continue walking up the hill past (5) this will take you onto the city ramparts high above the sea, walk past Chateau Grimadi / Musee Picasso down to the main beach, around a 15 minute walk.

Back at (5) turn onto Boulevard d' Aguillon, along this road are restaurants and bars - I think the saying still applies the further away from the water the more afforable the restaurant.  Avenue Thuret and up towards Rue la Republicique all have a cornucopia of restaurant choices aswell as from (5) up to (7)

(7) Is the site of the Provincial Marche (market) which is open till midday then converts into covered cafes for lunch and dinner.
(6) is the Carrefour supermarket open till 8pm, also a fantastic fruit shop next door.
(13) Is the main tourist office - there is also a small office on Avenue Verdun
(9) Musse Picasso
For the Ladies (22) or (15) or even one street up, have some good specialist stores - There is a great white porcelain store, a crystal store and a bohemian sarong/chemise store.

The English book store is at the begining of Rue Aubernon, near (5) they sell great deco postcards, have new books upstairs and a good collection of used books downstairs. The dampness downstairs is quite something.

On Thursdays there is a market in Place de Nationale and on Saturdays an Antiques market.

RECOMMENDATIONS

I suggest grabbing a map and geting lost in the Old town area between (10) (5) (9) and (8)
You will find amazing restaurants and beautiful alley ways like this.

Shops close between 12:30 and 2:00pm, this is becoming an exception in Antibes over summer.

Your TABAC is your cornerstore, these are generally open late.

If you haven't travelled in France before, learn a bit of French before you go, not everyone speaks English nor should they have to, you could get away with learning the phrase below.

"Je voudrais"      (zhuh-voo-dreh)

Equals "I would like .... " I'm a fan of saying this followed by a long drawn out errrrr as my finger finds what I want on the menu, followed by a big smile and merci.

Do say Bonjour, Bonsoir (evening) and Au revoir when entering and leaving a shop/restaurant, these places are treated like entering someones home.

"Je ne parles pas francais"   (Jaynay parly pa, fronsay)   "I do not speak French"

Lots of Merci's, Pardon's, Excuse moi's and hand gestures are always fun.

I have never found the French rude apart from when you sit in their beautiful outdoor cafes and only order a coffee.

When ordering a coffee/cafe say:

Je voudrais un Noisette, merci        (Noir-zette)

Noisette means hazelnut in French, which will be a shot or two of coffee and a little bit of fluffy milk on top - a little hazelnut.
Or order an expresso, I would avoid cafe o'lait - as the milk is UHT and always awful.

I'm a big fan of Michel Thomas for his audio french lessons, he is hilarant - his rules for his lessons are:

To relax.
Try not to remember what I am saying.
Do not write anything down.

You can actually hear him spitting as he talks.
I found 10 lessons with 10 chapters on each, just floating around on the internet.

Beaulieu-sur-Mer // Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild // Greek Villa Kerylos

The area of Beaulieu-sur-Mer and Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat are well known for their exquisite properties, two of which you can visit.

Catch the train to Beaulieu-sur-Mer station, as all of the train stations and train routes along the French Rivera, most are less than beautiful.

Walk from the station down towards Greek Villa Kerylos (mentioned later in the post.) You can visit or continue down along the beach or walkways.

You will notice on the main beaches and any private beaches, coloured beach umbrellas all set up in a uniformed way, these are the beach clubs which can charge from 16 to 30 euros a day for the use of their facilities.

At the end of the beach is a Promenade Maurice Rouvier that, I believe winds around the coast of Cap Ferrat, A and I walked as far as the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild which took about 10 minutes.

   

V I L L A   E P H R U S S I   D E  R O T H S C H I L D

The villa is known for its nine amazing gardens, muscial fountains and the Rothschild art collection of over 5,000 pieces

Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild was married at nineteen to Maurice Ephrussi, a Parisian banker originally from Russia, a friend of her father Baron Alphonse de Rothschild and fifteen years her senior.
Maurice through gambling acquired the couple 30 million euro of debt.  After 21 years of marriage, divorce was resolved through court.

The following year Baron de Rothschild died leaving Beatrice her vast fortune.

Beatrice decided to construct Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. 


She discovered this plot of land in 1906, Béatrice fell in love with the beauty of the spot. However, back then, it was no more than an arid rock crossed by a mule track. When she learnt that the land was for sale, and that the King of Belgium Léopold II was also interested in it, she bought it immediately.
Work began in 1907 and took five years. Béatrice Ephrussi appears to have been a particularly difficult client. She refused projects proposed by a dozen major architects, believing them to be “idiotic”.   And so, projects by Claude Girault, the architect of the Petit Palais in Paris, and even Henri-Paul Nénot, winner of the Prix de Rome and most famously architect of the new Sorbonne, were dismissed.  Thus, the project came to be placed in the hands of the architect Jacques-Marcel Auburtin, who scrupulously satisfied all of Béatrice’s requirements. He was assisted by Aaron Messiah, an architect from Nice who would go on to build several villas for the aristocracy.

Beatrice made this her winter residence from 1912 onwards and came here regularly for over ten years, during which she split her time between Paris, Monaco and Deauville.
In 1933, one year before her death, Béatrice bequeathed her Villa and all of her collections to the Académie des Beaux-Arts.

 

T H E  G A R D E N S

The Villa is surrounded by nine magnificent gardens.

The gardens took seven years to complete.  
Baroness called on Harold Peto and Achille Duchêne to complete the French Garden which took priority, as the Villa was completed after only four years.

Hundreds of Italian workers were hired for these colossal excavation works, they used dynamite to create the grounds and bring in enormous quantities of earth to make it flat. 

The Jardin Exotique, Provencal, Japanais, Lapidaire, Florentin, De Sevres and the Roseraire we owe to Louis Marchand.

In 1934, when Béatrice Ephrussi died and left her property to the Institut de France, Louis Marchand was commissioned with restoring the Villa grounds. He decided to level the ground, to bring the ornamental ponds back to life and to create themed gardens. In three years, he created a garden complex, including a bamboo plantation which no longer exists.

During the war, Cap Ferrat was vacated by all its inhabitants and mined. The Villa was left unmonitored and its garden abandoned for two years. On his return in 1945, Louis Marchand resumed his work on the gardens, which were badly damaged, and rapidly restored them to their pre-war splendour.

Jardin Japanais

G R E E K   V I L L A   K E R Y L O S

Built between 1902 and 1908 in the period the French call the "Belle Epoque", it is a unique reconstruction of an ancient Greek home. "Kerylos" means Halcyon, often identified as a kingfisher, a poetic mythical bird, considered to be a bird of good omen.

This is a tribute to Greek civilisation by two lovers of Ancient Greece, Théodore Reinach, an archaeologist and patron of the arts and Emmanuel Pontremoli, an inspired architect.

The Villa is a faithful reconstruction of Greek noble houses built on the island of Delos in the 2nd century B.C.

This island in the Cyclades archipelago is situated in the Aegean Sea, south of Athens. Far from being just a simple reproduction of dwellings on the island of Delos, Villa Kerylos is a reinvention of ancient Greece. From the arrangement of the rooms to the sophisticated detail of the décor, everything was designed to recreate the atmosphere of a luxurious Greek villa.

For both men, the aim was not to produce a pastiche but to create an original work by "thinking Greek". Emmanuel Pontremoli ingeniously managed to subtly incorporate the modern comfort of villas from the Belle Epoque era into the luxurious setting of a classical ancient villa.

For example, the bath in the Balaneion (thermal baths) was filled with water using the taps hidden under round grates and the action of the astonishing folding piano designed by Pleyel is hidden in a case made from the wood of a lemon tree.

The Villa Kerylos is a magical place offering visitors a view of living history, not only of ancient Greece but also of the Belle Epoque.

Credit : http://www.villa-kerylos.com/en/home

Antibes // Musee Picasso

On my last trip to Antibes I read Life with Picasso by Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake.

Francoise was Picasso's partner from the age of 21 or so for 10 years, the detail in which she recalls their conversations is fascinating, she talks about his ideas, how he perceives and constructs his art work, politics, the places they live, the artists and people they encounter and how life was for them during this period. I found Francoise particularly fascinating, how she chooses her battles.

Highly recommended.

HISTORY OF MUSEE PICASSO

In the summer of 1946, Picasso and his lover Françoise Gilot left Paris and headed for the south of France to stay with an engraver friend, Louis Fort.

In her book Life with Picasso, Gilot describes the tiny hamlet of Golfe-Juan, on the coast between Antibes and Cannes, as almost deserted when they first visited.

It was on this beach that Picasso met another friend, the photographer Michel Sima, who told him about the space at Château Grimaldi, a Roman fort that was rebuilt in the 14th century and bought by the French crown. Now owned by the city of Antibes, it had been renamed Musée Grimaldi and housed archaeological artefacts.

The museum's curator was struggling to fill its vast space and was more than happy to devote the former guards' hall on the second floor to Picasso as his studio. The artist's sojourn may have been brief – he stayed roughly from the middle of September to the middle of November that year – but his output was prodigious: 23 paintings and 44 drawings came out of his two months in Antibes.

When he moved in, Picasso told the curator that he would decorate the walls of the castle as a thank you. But they were in a rough state of repair, and in the end Picasso was unable to fulfil his promise, with the exception of one graphite drawing, Les Clés d'Antibes. (The drawing can still be seen in the hall of the Grimaldi.) Instead, he donated the work he'd done there to the museum, stipulating that they should remain there permanently. "Anyone who wants to see them will have to come to Antibes," he declared.

Picasso, 1945–1949: L'Ère du Renouveau (The Age of Renewal) at the château, which is now the Musée Picasso, invites people to do just that. It's the first chance to take a comprehensive look at what is often referred to as Picasso's Antibes period. As well as the collection donated by Picasso, a further 140 exhibits have returned to the studio in which they were conceived.

Picasso worked mainly at night, leaving Gilot in the afternoon in the house in Golfe-Juan. His friend Sima was invited to take photographs of him at work, and these pictures are included in the exhibition, intimate portraits of the artist in a playful and mischievous mood.

Picasso's painting La Joie de Vivre (1946) is emblematic of his stay in Antibes, reflecting not only the Greco-Roman heritage of the old Mediterranean port, but also Picasso's mood at the time. The composition is based on Greek mythology; it depicts a tambourine-playing nymph, wild horse-like creatures, and fauns dancing and playing the duale – a double-barrel flute typical of this part of France. It refers to the story of Antipolis (the Greek name for Antibes) and is also a homage to Gilot, his muse of the time.

La Joie de Vivre hangs on the second floor of the museum, in the space that became Picasso's studio. Sunlight streams through its fortified windows and the Mediterranean glistens beyond. It's not hard to see where his inspiration came from.

The painting is also intriguing because of the materials Picasso used. When he arrived in town there was a shortage of art materials, so he worked with what was available locally. Instead of canvas, the panel was made of asbestos-cement; Picasso also used boat paint procured from the quayside, which he applied using household paintbrushes. He reasoned that these materials would be perfect for the environment and the climate.

Another iconic painting here is the triptych Ulysse et les Sirènes (1947), in which the features of the Greek hero are represented by the insides of sea urchins; behind him we can see his boat and beyond that the snow-covered peaks of the Alps. Such is the influence of Antipolis in this painting that it is almost inconceivable that it could hang anywhere else.

However, not everything in this exhibition is sunlit. The show includes Picasso's 'vanités', paintings made during the occupation of Paris. In these, his palette is reduced to shades of grey, ochre and black, symbolising the austerity and harshness of the war years. In one of his still lifes from this era, a mask and a pair of leeks form a skull and crossbones. There is also a jug. The metaphor for death is evident in the mask and leeks, but the pitcher of what can be assumed to be water represents a cleansing process, as if Picasso is ready to wash away the memories of war.

Nowhere is this new lease of life portrayed more clearly than in the image of Picasso's lover, muse and soon-to-be-mother of his child. Françoise Gilot can be detected in nearly every painting, as a nymph, cat, moon goddess, flower and fish. A fantastic series of 13 graphite drawings are rhythmical portraits of her, each created in seconds without the artist's pencil leaving the paper.

When Matisse came to visit the museum and saw the long plywood panel of the Reclining Woman, a painting of the nude body of Gilot splayed at perpendicular angles, he spent the afternoon sitting in front of it, sketching and taking notes, trying to figure out what Picasso had done with the top and bottom of the body.

The Age of Renewal in Antibes is more than an adjunct to this year's round of Picasso shows. It's an opportunity to breathe in the air and soak up the atmosphere of a place that inspired a man widely regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century.

Credit;

Tony Myers

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 26 May 2009 12.32 BST

Eze

GETTING TO EZE

By train stop at Eze station, just above the station is a bus stop that has one bus that runs to Eze every hour or so, if you are facing the cliffs, with your back to the sea - to the right about 20m along on the other side of the road, is the walking track up to Eze, this is not an obvisious entrance as the sign looks like it is for a B&B.

The walking track is around an hour to the top, as shown from the photo above, the track takes you from the sea, to where this photo is taken.  I recommend a full water bottle and perhaps not to be attempted on a hot day.

If you decide to wait for the bus, there is a cafe visible from the bus stop, we also spotted a very cool looking courtyard bar to the right, not as clearly visible.

                                                                                   Map of Eze

Eze is a tiny village of winding cobblestone alley ways and one million tourist shops. Hotel Chevre d'Or takes over the lower left side of Eze, with hotel rooms located down and off twisting alleyways, apparently the food is rather good, have a look at the menu on their website as it is on the extravagant side, apparently the terrace seating is amazing and the gardens (pictured below) there are lots of interesting looking cafes as you climb Eze.

Jardin Exotique is at the very top of the village, entry is 8 euro with amazing views over the French Rivera.

Map of Eze
(9) or (13) Is where the path to the train station starts (1 hour down)
(1) and (24) Toilets
(3) Bustop to Eze train station (do not cross the road)
(12) (15) (13)  Hotel Chevre d'Or
(29) Church
(32) Jardin Exotique

                                                 Private gardens of Hotel Chevre d'Or

                                                                Jardin Exotique

The area surrounding Èze was first populated around 2000 BC as a commune situated near Mount Bastide. The earliest occurrence of the name "Èze" can be found in the maritime books of Antonin as a bay called the St. Laurent of Èze. The area was subsequently occupied by not only the Romans but also the Moors who held the area for approximately 80 years until they were driven out by William of Provence in 973.

By 1388 Èze fell under the jurisdiction of the House of Savoy, who built up the town as a fortified stronghold because of its proximity to Nice. The history of Èze became turbulent several times in the next few centuries as French and Turkish troops seized the village under orders from Hayreddin Barbarossa in 1543, and Louis XIV destroyed the walls surrounding the city in 1706 in the war of the Spanish succession. Finally in April 1860, Eze was designated as part of France by unanimous decision by the people of Eze.

Èze has been described as an “eagle's nest” because of its location overlooking a high cliff 427 metres (1,401 ft) above sea level on the French Mediterranean. It's so high that the light ochre church within (Notre Dame de l’Assomption built in 1764) can be seen from afar. An Egyptian cross inside the church suggests the village's ancient roots, when the Phoenicians erected a temple there to honour the goddess Isis.

credit: Wikipedia

Grasse // Perfume // The story of a hyperosmic killer

Grasse is a 30 minute train ride from Antibes, up into the hills.

Grasse is a large town based on the tourism of perfume.

For the perfume enthusiast, the perfume museum is interesting to walk around and there are also the three main perfume houses Galimard, Fragonard and Molinard.

I suggest, like all beautiful French towns, walk around and explore, then find somewhere to sit down and have some good food and wine.

GETTING TO GRASSE

Once you arrive at the Grasse train station, walk out of the station to your right is the tourism office, below the bus stop.
Ask at the office how to walk up or how to bus, being with A the lover of steps and hills we walked past the bus stop to the zebra crossing walked up a drive way, then followed our nose and a few signs up to Grasse, the walk is rather run-down, across roads and through littered alley ways.





“Odours have a power of persuasion stronger than that of words, appearances, emotions, or will. The persuasive power of an odour cannot be fended off, it enters into us like breath into our lungs, it fills us up, imbues us totally. There is no remedy for it.” (Perfume, P. Suskind)

H I S T O R Y

Grasse is an ancient city north of Provence, in between the sea and the mountains. It is an important medieval site, the region produces the most precious flowers of France.

Since the Middle Ages the city has been an important economical centre, characterized by a considerable number of tannery and glove-factories, that produced hides whose high quality made the city famous in the whole Europe.

In XVI century the fashion of perfumed gloves (started by Caterina de’ Medici to avoid the unpleasant odour of leather gloves) and the cultivation of aromatic plants, used to perfume leather, gave birth to perfume industry.

At the beginning of the XVIII century the corporation of glovers-perfumers started to stand out from tanners, at the point that in 1729 they gained an own statute, and year after year the production of perfumed oils became more profitable than that of leather gloves.
In XIX century the city became an industrial centre.

Three are the giants of perfume in “the only city where the word factory is poetical” (Francis de Croisset): Galimard, Fragonard and Molinard.

 
 
 

 

 

P E R F U M E // The story of a hyperosmic killer

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is the protagonist from Patrick Süskind's novel Perfume, published in 1985 and set in Grasse.  Grenouille is born with an extreme form of hyperosmia (an abnormally strong sense of smell), which eventually leads to him becoming a serial killer.

Part one

Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born in the fish market in Paris, on July 17, 1738. His mother, who would have let him die, was executed shortly after Grenouille's birth. Even though he has a phenomenal sense of smell, he has no odour of his own, which repelled every wet nurse in the cloister. He was given to the church for a short time and was eventually brought to Madame Gaillard's orphanage and sold to Monsieur Grimal's tannery at 8 years old. In September 1753, Grenouille becomes enchanted by the scent of a redheaded (assumed) girl from the Rue de Marais, who is peeling plums. Grenouille strangles the girl out of impulse and smells as much of her as he can, as soon as she is dead. From then on, he dedicated his life to preserving the girl's scent. He became apprenticed to Giuseppe Baldini, a renowned Italian perfumer, and quickly mastered distillation, creating hundreds of new perfumes. At the age of 18, Jean-Baptiste left for Grasse to learn enfleurage, since it was impossible to distill the scent of a human being (he found this out after trying to distill a cat). Baldini agrees to give Grenouille traveling papers if Grenouille agrees to leave him at least 100 new formulas and promises never to return to Paris.
 
Part two

Grenouille travels by night, through the mountains, to get to Grasse. He avoids other people as much as he can. In Auvergne, he settles in a cave where he stays for seven years, living in an imaginary purple castle in his head. In his fantasies, the scents he has smelled throughout his life are drinks, standing around him in bottles. Throughout these seven years, he emerges from the cave only at night. He finds he lacks for nothing in the cave, and may have stayed there permanently if not for the occurrence of a 'catastrophe.' In the cave, Grenouille discovers he has no smell of his own. This discovery moves Grenouille to continue to Grasse.

 
Part three

After leaving his cave, Grenouille spends a short amount of time with the Marquis de la Taillade-Espinasse and then ends up working for Madame Arnulfi in Grasse, where he learns the method of enfleurage. Grenouille also discovers another red-headed girl named Laure Richis, an exquisitely beautiful girl whose scent is even better than that of the girl from the Rue de Marais. When he first notices her, she is still very young (about 14) and Grenouille wants to wait 2 years before trying to capture her scent. However, the only way to capture a living being's scent is by killing that being. Before Laure, Grenouille kills 24 other beautiful young girls for their scent. He cuts their hair and takes their clothes with him. His lack of scent becomes a great asset to him, as he is never caught. When another murderer is caught in Grenoble, everyone in Grasse believes the murder spree is over except for Antoine Richis, Laure's father. Antoine then figures out the murderer's way of thinking and decides to flee, intending to marry his daughter off. The first night of their journey is spent in La Napoule, but Grenouille tracks them down and murders Laure. Even though he leaves before anyone else wakes up, he is arrested shortly after Laure's murder and the court decides to execute him. But by that time, he has already made a perfume out of Laure's hair and clothes.
Süskind refers to what happens on the day of the execution as a 'Promethean act.' Laure's scent inspires so much love that it causes the 10,000 people in the crowd to enact an orgy, and to consider Grenouille the most amazing person they have ever seen. Grenouille, however, only feels hatred for them. When even Antoine Richis comes to Grenouille begging for forgiveness, Grenouille faints. When he wakes up again, he is in Laure's bed while Antoine holds his hand and asks him to be his son. All Grenouille wants to do, however, is return to Paris and die.
 
Part four

Grenouille now knows that he can never love like others, nor can he smell himself, but he has the power to do whatever he wants: 'the invincible power to command the love of mankind.' When he returns to the fish market where he was born, he tips the flask over his head. The criminals prowling around the market see him as an angel, and eat him. When they are done, it feels as though they had 'for the first time in their life, done something purely out of love.

E N F L E U R A G E

In cold enfleurage, a large framed plate of glass, called a chassis, is smeared with a layer of animal fat, usually lard or tallow (from pork or beef, respectively), and allowed to set. Botanical matter, usually petals or whole flowers, is then placed on the fat and its scent is allowed to diffuse into the fat over the course of 1-3 days. The process is then repeated by replacing the spent botanicals with fresh ones until the fat has reached a desired degree of fragrance saturation.

This procedure was developed in southern France in the 19th century for the production of high-grade concentrates.

In hot enfleurage, solid fats are heated and botanical matter is stirred into the fat. Spent botanicals are repeatedly strained from the fat and replaced with fresh material until the fat is saturated with fragrance. This method is considered the oldest known procedure for preserving plant fragrance substances.

In both instances, once the fat is saturated with fragrance, it is then called the "enfleurage pomade". The enfleurage pomade was either sold as it was, or it could be further washed or soaked in ethyl alcohol to draw the fragrant molecules into the alcohol. The alcohol is then separated from the fat and allowed to evaporate, leaving behind the absolute of the botanical matter. The spent fat is usually used to make soaps since it is still relatively fragrant.

Juan-les-Pines // Eden Roc

l'Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc has a rich history of 140 years, she is a favourite with the rich and famous, parties for the Cannes Film Festival are regularly held here, I really wanted to visit but couldn't quite stomach 19 euro for a diet coke.

http://www.hotel-du-cap-eden-roc.com/eng/history/#23

 
My friend O reminded me of this song, when he heard I was travelling to Juan les Pines.  I think this song has some great references to the Midi and the people that spent time here.

Juan les Pines is known for its night life and its beach clubs, they stretch out along the coast, with a small public beach a hundred metres down. Friends come here for their day off to indulgence and relax at the Beach clubs.

 

 There is a beautiful shop full of bohemian sarongs and cotton dresses on Avenue Maréchal Joffre just to the left of the carousal as you reach the beach, I spent 180 euros on two sarongs to use as comforters when I went on my first super yacht, they were so soft.  I visited recently with A and they were at the more respectable 30-40 euros (also see the bohemian shop in Antibes.)

 PETER SARSTEDT // Where do you you go to my lovely

 You talk like Marlene Dietrich
  And you dance like Zizi Jeanmaire
  Your clothes are all made by Balmain
  And there’s diamonds and pearls in your hair, yes there are.

  You live in a fancy apartment
  Off the Boulevard of St. Michel
  Where you keep your Rolling Stones records
  And a friend of Sacha Distel, yes you do.

You go to the embassy parties
Where you talk in Russian and Greek
And the young men who move in your circles
They hang on every word you speak, yes they do.

But where do you go to my lovely
When you're alone in your bed
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes i do.

I've seen all your qualifications
You got from the Sorbonne
And the painting you stole from Picasso
Your loveliness goes on and on, yes it does.

When you go on your summer vacation
You go to Juan-les-Pines
With your carefully designed topless swimsuit
You get an even suntan, on your back and on your legs.

And when the snow falls you're found in St. Moritz
With the others of the jet-set
And you sip your Napoleon Brandy
But you never get your lips wet, no you don't.

But where do you go to my lovely
When you're alone in your bed
would you Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do.

You're in between 20 and 30
A very desirable age
Your body is firm and inviting
But you live on a glittering stage, yes you do, yes you do.

Your name is heard in high places
You know the Aga Khan
He sent you a racehorse for Christmas
And you keep it just for fun, for a laugh ha-ha-ha

They say that when you get married
It'll be to a millionaire
But they don't realize where you came from
And I wonder if they really care, or give a damn

But where do you go to my lovely
When you're alone in your bed
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes i do.








I remember the back streets of Naples
Two children begging in rags
Both touched with a burning ambition
To shake off their lowly brown tags, they try

So look into my face Marie-Claire
And remember just who you are
Then go and forget me forever
But I know you still bear
the scar, deep inside, yes you do

I know where you go to my lovely
When you're alone in your bed
I know the thoughts that surround you
`Cause I can look inside your head.