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How Cannes was
founded

Cannes reflections

Croisette and port

Like Edmund Wilson writes in his “ The Twenties, from Notebooks and Diaries of that period”: Cannes is a gleaming town of rose and white, there where the Alps like Elephants come down to kneel beside the calm and azure sea”.
Reality, of course, is different: the number of Rolls, Jaguars and Ferraris is certainly impressive, silver locks are present in strong proportions. Cannes has undoubtedly developed since Edmund Wilson recorded its charms. The city fell as a prey to mass tourism, but sparkles miraculously as a jewelled survivor of a bygone age. Cannes remains an exceptional site, a coquettish harbour with a lot of hotels and restaurants.....with accessible prices. Skirting the skies above Cannes, sumptuous summer palaces still glitter like golden eggs, of what the French call chicken-nests, and we know mundanely as potholes.
If you arrive via a coastal road is it ---of season--- a good idea to park your car along the famous AVENUE DE LA CROISETTE or in the parking of the Palais des Festivals et des Congres. And if we want to understand why Cannes ever was called “a piece of heaven on earth” we must make the climb to the Place du Castre at the top of the SUQUET, the rock on which the old Cannes is built.

Lord Brougham

During that climb we will see a portrait of LORD BROUGHAM, the benefactor of Cannes and in fact its founder. The Suquet still has its  secret alleys, passages and half-hidden auberges and bistros. Its hill and its moorings date from roman times. The landmark Tower at the top dates from 11th century built by the monks of the Iles des Lerins (where we will visit later on). Just look at the church Notre Dame d’Esperance, you don’t have to enter. But the view of Cannes and the bay!! We can appreciate its commanding view of all along the shore and back to the hill La Californie, where Picasso used to live, but to get this far is an achievement. The cobbled lanes are steep and narrow and the temptation to photograph too much has spelled the ruin of many a latter-day photo expedition. We can now understand why Lord Brougham and his sick daughter Eleonore saw when they were sent back at the Sardinian border and –sulking the first days---settled down in Cannes in hotel Pinchinat, that’s the place where you stand now!! But what happened exactly to Lord Brougham?
He was Lord Chancellor of Great-Britain (where he championed the abolition of slavery) but fatigued after six years. He resigned and set off from London with his sickly daughter Eleonore in search of a mild climate on the Riviera where the British were already making their presence felt in increasing numbers. He intended to go to Nice as far as the river Var which then formed a formidable frontier between Provence (France) and the Kingdom of Sardinia (Italy). However, he found a raging torrent barring his way. Italian soldiers refused to let him through as cholera had broken out in Provence. They forced him to turn back, first to Antibes which displeased him, the to Cannes were an inn had previously accommodated Victor Hugo and pope Pius VII. This proved more to his liking.
What Lord Brougham and his daughter saw a brown rock with a castle and a square tower on top and a modest house between the pines and the palm trees. There was no boulevard de la Croisette, no yacht harbour and, very important, no Palais des Festivals et Congres. High housing did not cover the hills behind the village and nobody ever heard of Super-Cannes. Only three roads with fishermen’s houses, the tower of La Castre and an inn serving bouillabaisse was all there was to Cannes. A lonely fisher boat bobbed on the blue sea along the narrow coastline of Ile Sainte-Marguerite or Saint-Honorat. And all the rest was sun, wind and clouds. Brougham was so captivated by the countryside that within a week he had bought a plot of land and built the “Villa Eleonore” to the west of Le Suquet along the Frejus road. It still stands, tastefully converted into flats, on avenue Docteur Picaud. 

Bibliography:

Tobias Smollet, "Travels through France and Italy", (Oxford University Press, Oxford, New-York in the series World Classics), John Pemble, "the Mediterranean Passion, Victorians and Edwardians in the South", (Oxford University Press 1988), Mary Blume, "Cote d'Azur. Inventing the French Riviera" (Thames and Hudson, London 1982), The Twenties, From Notebooks and Diaries of the Period, by Edmund Wilson (Cannes 1921)

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