Côte d'Azur: A chronicle of glamour and crises

From its discovery in 1834 to the glamorous 1950s, the Côte d'Azur experienced a chequered history, marked by wars, crises and recurring upturns.

By Edward Quinn, Nice 1980

The Côte d'Azur's reputation as a unique meeting place for the rich and famous began in the middle of the 19th century. At that time, the area known as the Riviera also included the Italian Riviera di Ponente and the Riviera di Levante. To distinguish the French Riviera from its Italian sisters, the writer Stéphen Liégeard later coined the poetic name "La Côte d'Azur" – the Blue Coast.

The French Riviera had no clearly defined boundaries. Kings and queens, aristocrats, the European aristocracy, the society of millionaires, the beautiful people of the time and, of course, writers, painters and musicians who were in vogue, all raved about this lush and exotic 100-kilometre stretch of Mediterranean coastline lacquered down from Menton on the Italian border to the beaches of Saint-Tropez and beyond to Bandol and Cassis. The glamorous Monte Carlo, the quiet city of Nice and the elegant old town of Cannes were particularly popular. Attracted by the mild climate with its eternally blue sky, the refreshing sea breeze and the beguiling scent of pine, eucalyptus and mimosa bushes as well as the lush variety of wild herbs, the Côte d'Azur cast a spell over the rich and beautiful. In the 1880s, this coastal strip developed into a winter holiday destination par excellence. The list of prominent guests reads like a Who's Who of the elite of the time, led by the honourable Queen Victoria of England, whose regular visits are immortalised to this day in the numerous hotels that bear her name. Thanks to its kinship with many European royal houses, the Côte d'Azur provided a stage for relaxed encounters with Her Majesty. The illustrious society that spent the winter on the Côte d'Azur belonged to European high society before the First World War: Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, the fascinating Eugénie, former Empress of France and wife of Napoleon III, King Leopold II of Belgium and the Russian Grand Duke Sergei Romanov were among the select guests.

Monte Carlo was the centre of attraction for royalty. In the winter season of 1887 alone, the Queen of Portugal, the King of Sweden, the Emperor and Empress of Austria, the King of Belgium, the Russian Tsar’s widow and the King of Serbia honoured themselves there. Monte Carlo was already a unique place for gamblers back then, and quite a few lost a large part of their fortune here.

The discovery of the Côte d'Azur goes back to Lord Henry Brougham, a Scottish politician and lawyer. In November 1834, while travelling from the south to Italy, a cholera epidemic forced him to stop in Cannes. In this picturesque fishing village overlooking the Iles de Lerins, he fell in love with the modest Provençal houses, the small harbour, the red rocks of the Esterel and the tempting bouillabaisse. He stayed at the only inn, the Auberge Pinchinat, and barely a week after his arrival he bought a large property there. In a letter to a friend in London, he wrote: "In this enchanted atmosphere, which appeals to dreamers like me, it is a pleasure to forget for a few moments the ugliness and misery of life." He returned to Cannes the following year, and many of his friends came with him. The legend of the Golden Riviera was born and the European aristocracy began to discover this enchanting region for themselves. A winter visit to the Côte d'Azur soon became an integral part of the social calendar. In 1839, Brougham had the imposing Villa Eleonore-Louise built, which still exists today. He thus laid the foundations for a building boom that produced exclusive villas with magnificent gardens in the years that followed – some of the most famous villas on the Riviera date from this period.

Towards the end of the 19th century, the rigid social barriers began to loosen. A new, more frivolous atmosphere spread, no doubt fuelled by the notorious bon vivant, the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII), and his sometimes dubious entourage. Hotels were built to accommodate this illustrious society and casinos to entertain them. Another Englishman, Henry Ruhl, who started out as a bellboy at the Hotel Scribe in Paris, made a fortune building and running hotels. He planned and built houses with luxurious flats for kings and queens as well as the wealthy. His most famous creations were the Ruhl in Nice and the Carlton in Cannes. In each of these luxury hotels, an entire floor was reserved for royal guests.

During this time, the Riviera was a playground for the super-rich and those who enjoyed life where the money was. Exclusive artists were hired to entertain these privileged circles. The Russian impresario Djaghilev staged brilliantly choreographed ballets in the Monte Carlo Opera House, with Anna Pavlova and the legendary Nijinsky as outstanding performers. Famous musicians such as Berlioz and Paganini appeared, not only at concerts, but also as central figures in social life and as star guests at the extravagant parties in the magnificent villas by the sea.

These opulent parties were often financed by wealthy industrialists and businessmen. The American millionaires J.P. Morgan and Cornelius Vanderbilt owned luxury yachts that cruised along the Riviera, often with royal guests on board. At the end of the 19th century and into the late 1920s, until the stock market crash of 1929, the word "Riviera" was synonymous with wealth, elegance, high living, romance and intrigue.

The Côte d'Azur was an inexhaustible source of inspiration for novelists, but reality often surpassed even the boldest literary fantasies. Sentimental love affairs and spectacular jewellery robberies dominated the stories, while tragic suicide tales of hapless businessmen and aristocrats gambling away their fortunes were widespread. One particularly gloomy legend tells of a casino employee who is said to have put a loaded revolver in the pocket of a desperate gambler as he left the house.

As the Riviera grew in popularity, it increasingly attracted wealthy visitors, who were not always in the millionaire class. The French railway company recognised this and decided to make the most important places on the Côte d'Azur more accessible by opening up a railway line. In 1868, the PLM railway (Paris–Lyon–Méditerranée) was completed, running from Marseille to Monte Carlo and as close as possible to the sea so that travellers could enjoy the breathtaking panorama to the full. The elegant waiting rooms of the railway stations in St Raphael, Cannes, Nice, Monaco, Monte Carlo and Menton were richly decorated with ceramic tiles, tapestries and landscape paintings, opening up the coast to a new clientele. To cater for the growing seasonal crowds, numerous new hotels were built – not only in the glamorous seaside resorts, but also in smaller towns such as Menton, Beaulieu, Antibes and Juan-les-Pins, which were less well-known at the time.

The Riviera's prosperity and success peaked when the stock market crash on Wall Street destroyed the financial foundations of many foreign regulars on the Côte d'Azur. Some were forced to close their extravagant properties and lay off their staff. This exodus led to properties and large residences being offered for sale at ridiculously low prices. As a result, the Côte d'Azur had to rely largely on the French population to survive economically. But at the end of the 1930s, as the financial world recovered, prosperity returned to the Riviera. New buildings such as the Palais du Sporting Club in Monte Carlo were erected to delight the nouveaux riches with food, dance and entertainment. Until the outbreak of the Second World War, the Riviera experienced a revival of joie de vivre, elegance and eccentricity that made the headlines of the time. The Côte d'Azur was the scene of concours d'élégance, carnivals, gala dinners, balls, ballets, operas, the Monte Carlo Rally, the Grand Prix de Monaco, concours hippique and clay pigeon shooting.

With the start of the Second World War, the magnificent houses were once again shuttered and valuable objects, jewellery and paintings were carefully hidden away. Life on the coast changed: the locals looked after the region, but the once magnificent villas fell into disrepair and the large gardens became overgrown. The Riviera acquired the morbid splendour of past greatness. In 1941, a demilitarised, so-called free zone was established in the south of France that was not occupied by the Germans, which fortunately brought peace to the region for the most part. There were only isolated instances of war activities, which were limited to the shelling of strategic points on the coast. Buildings along the coast were damaged, particularly during the invasion in 1944 and the bombardment when the allied troops landed. St Tropez was one of the hardest hit places and many houses along the famous harbour suffered severe damage.

After the war, people gradually returned to the Riviera, but for many, living conditions and financial circumstances had changed fundamentally. The world seemed irrevocably different, and this impression led to many villas and second homes in the south being neglected. Between 1945 and 1949, houses and land were therefore once again available for purchase at comparatively low prices, resulting in a significant redistribution of private property. Nevertheless, the unique lifestyle that was still possible on the Riviera began to attract visitors again. The most important hotels and casinos were lavishly renovated and reopened in the luxurious splendour of the pre-war era. In the first years after the war, American tourists flocked to the Côte d'Azur – the dollar was the hardest currency in the world and extremely popular in the tourism business. Everything was done to cater for both the enthusiastic and the less discerning globetrotters. Former kings and queens, aristocrats, playboys, stars and starlets, exiled politicians and tycoons also found their way back to the French Riviera. A new generation of celebrities, the jet-setters, established themselves, while artists remembered the peace and beauty of the Côte d'Azur. Many famous painters, writers and poets came to settle and work here.

Most people sought refuge on the Riviera from the hectic atmosphere created by the reconstruction of the big cities after the war. I experienced this glamorous era of the Côte d'Azur, the golden 50s and 60s, at close quarters and captured it with my camera.