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Cote d'Azur

Menton, a haven for last
century's aristocracy

Menton, visiting town (1)

TOWN HALL, at the rue de la République has a red and ochre painted façade in Italian style with a lot of sculptures. Right if the building is the entrance of the wedding hall. In 1957 the mayor of Menton asked the then famous filmmaker, writer, poet, everybody’s friend and painter Jean Cocteau to decorate the walls of the wedding hall. The result looks like the interior of a Greek temple.
If you’re an amateur of fine arts make loiter along the  "Promenade du Soleil" (already mentioned earlier), along the water. You will stumble on the PALAIS CARNOLES, the city museum, on the avenue de la Madone. This palace used to be the summer residence of the Monaco Grimaldis has paintings dating from the 13th century up. From La Brea to Kisling, Dufy, Derain, De Vlaeminck. Lately they acquired some contemporary masters like Delvaux, Poliakoff, Sutherland, Tal Coat, and Gleizes. Return towards town and have a look at the jardins “BIOVES”:  a gentle gradation of colour and height, serried ranks of  palm-trees, lemon-trees and flowers  with a nice perspective on the surrounding mountains.  
And here comes another bastion: the MUSEE JEAN COCTEAU.  He designed the mosaic flooring and the bright tiling on the four turrets. Inside Aubusson tapestries, pottery and painting, mainly executed by Jean Cocteau.  On an easel, a portrait of the genial Picasso. But at the risk of hurting some feelings let me say that in my opinion this museum is another example where the overestimating of an artist during his life is expressed by these kind of official monuments in front of which the later generations look in disbelief! For the anecdote, Cocteau did not live to see the opening in 1967. Anyway, Cocteau dabbled in  ceramics, beautifully crafted jars,  photography, sculptures, Greek, Hellenic and Etruscan designs. 
A few hundred meters from the centre, two inviting beautiful gardens: the first JARDIN DU VAL –RAMEH, divided into themes like an exotic, a wild and a nympheas pond and then the Jardins du Pian, more a botanical garden.

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), “Bordering the Italian Riviera, Menton”, by Gianni Rivero, (ed.Villegiature) "Guides du Routard 1998", (ed.Hachette), “Cocteau, le poète”, by Jean Lefevre.

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Menton, visiting town (2),
wedding hall, Carnoles
palace and Cocteau