Cote D'Azur
-- OK! Magazine
Follow in the footsteps of Coco Chanel, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Grace Kelly to the place where the rich dally with the famous and the sunbathers drip gold. Cadogan's bestselling guide uncorks the fizz of the French Riviera, the captivating coastline whose light inspires artists and whose villages harbor aromatic perfumeries and world-renowned chefs.
Hand-picked and welcoming places to stay and eat, easy-to-use maps, clear layout and rich cultural background detail combine with discerning advice on everything from markets, beaches and boat trips to film and flower festivals.
Visits to local vineyards, turtle sanctuaries and cliff top botanical gardens are interwoven with stories of follies and fancies, and even a recipe for aioli, to make a guide that is as entertaining as it is informative.
Excerpt: Matisse's Chapelle du Rosaire
During the war, Matisse refused to leave France, but his home in Nice was dangerously near the city’s arsenal and he was eventually persuaded to move to Vence in 1941 to escape the coastal bombing. Some years earlier, a young woman called Monique Bourgeois had answered an advert for a 'young and pretty night nurse for the painter Henri Matisse', who was recovering from a serious operation. Later, she became a Dominican nun and was sent, by and odd coincidence, to a convent opposite the villa which Matisse had taken in Vence to wait out the war. The sisters at the convent were using an old run-down garage as a chapel, but they used to daydream about the chapel they might have one day if they could get the money together. Monique, now Soeur Jacques-Marie, showed Matisse a design for a stained glass window, which the painter promised to finance. ...click here to read the rest
Cadogan@s Cote D'Azur, /5
Strong on history, including recent history, often in a gossipy style, the antithesis of the usual straight-laced
type of guide. Very enjoyable, very thorough too. Well worth investing in.
Dana Facaros and Michael Pauls can be reached at: michel.pauls@wanadoo.fr
