Paris

Let’s continue to JUAN LES PINS where the beach residents inhale together the fresh ocean air and the fresh gasoil fumes sitting on the narrow beach stripe being separated from the asphalt road by a stoop and a few palm trees. Everything here is untidy and disorderly and certainly less “chic”. We try to get the soonest possible through the traffic.
The story of Juan les Pins starts only in the thirties. It used to be a pine tree forest continuing until the sea and was in fact invented as seaside resort by the American multimillionaire Frank Jay Gould, the man who gave his second wife 5 automobiles as a present.

F.Jay Gould and wife

Frank was the son of the railway tycoon Jay Gould also called the “scoundrel baron”. He invested money in Cannes and Nice casinos and built there his own hotels. In Juan les Pins the “Eden Beach casino” and the “Hotel Provencal”. They came in the news by the fact they had some mad novelties: every room had its own private bathroom and the guest found a fresh new soap when they moved in the room. At the end of the twenties Juan les Pins was already a very visited and very noisy bathing resort. So it was certainly not the ideal dream place for that other kind of Americans: the artists and would be artists, who had heard that everything was much cheaper in France as in the States.

Juan les Pins-Grand Hotel 19th century

Sara and Gerald Murphy were one of the first of this artistic migration, even if they were certainly not poor, on the contrary. In 1921 they first go to Paris where they discover the works of Picasso and Braque.
They will move on later to cap d’Antibes (see my articles about cap d’Antibes).
Today Juan les Pins attracts mass tourism. In the summer there are many festivals of which the prestigious “Jazz Festival of Juan-les-Pins”. Ella Fitzgerald, Fats Domino, Lionel Hampton....
Continuing along the sea we pass GOLFE JUAN where a small monument reminds that Napoleon disembarked on March first 1814 when he escaped from his banishment in Elba. A mosaic monument with the inscription under the two eagles: “Ici débarqua Napoleon en 1815.” He landed with his boat “L’Inconstant” and started the “100 days” until his defeat in Waterloo. At the other side of the monument you can see a plaque:” Ici commence la route Napoleon”, the road he followed to return to Paris, and which is a very frequented touristy route nowadays.
The port of Golfe-Juan is packed with luxurious yachts that could never been earned honestly....what a bad tongue I am ;-)
Via the avenue de la Gare we can climb up to VALLAURIS, the ancient “Vallis Aurea” (Golden Valley) now an important pottery centre, already since Antiquity. Picasso settled down here in 1946 and gave pottery a second youth, by making a craftsmanship with alimentary purposes into a real decorative art. He worked in the ceramics manufactory. “Madoura”, attracted many artists and tourists and painted here works like “Mass murder in Korea” (1951). Today more than 200 "maitres potiers" work there with the traditional techniques.
But, but, besides pottery (and there is pottery ....and pottery, the worst and the best live here together) and besides a few restaurants who deserve that name, Vallauris is of very little touristy interest. Older residents remember how sweet life used to be here but it changed a lot during the last 15 years. And not in the better way. Too much commercialised! Numerous shops of ceramics but don't be too enthusiastic. Usually it is worthless junk, a lot of horrors but sometimes you stumble upon something worthy. The best are to find at Madoura, who sells copies of Picasso gravures.
In 1951 the municipality proposed Picasso to decorate the chapel of the priory of Vallauris.

Guerre et Paix in the chapel

What is now the MUSEE NATIONAL “Guerre et Paix”? Nothing more than an old Provencal chapel where he realized in 1952 an immense fresco "Guerre et Paix", in a record time. War is represented by the coffin, hideous people, animals and horses trampling books, symbol of civilization. On the shield of a warrior, a dove, symbol of peace and a lance in the shape of a balance, symbolizing Justice. Dancing people, joyful scenes enhance the opposite wall with a message of hope, let's all fraternize, any race, any religion. Picasso painted it in a record tempo , a normal house painter would need the same time to just paint a house!
Anyway the work was heavily criticized since the sentiments where certainly not leftist at the time.
In 1955 he left Vallauris for Cannes, then Mougins but Vallauris still kept a little space in his heart, however when municipality organized a celebration for his 90 years, but he refused to come, saying: "I'd like to see your spectacle, but I don't want to be your spectacle!”. He watched the whole thing at home, on TV!( dixit the Routard)
Next to the museum there is another museum: MUSEE DE LA CERAMIQUE (Magnelli museum) with paintings Magnelli on the second floor, a painter I admire a lot.

Homme au Mouton

On the central square, place Paul Isnard, stands the Picasso statue "L'HOMME AU MOUTON” (Man with sheep), a symbol of hope, made during WWII.
How pottery was made, from the start of the final product and a reconstitution of an old pottery atelier is to see In the MUSEE DE LA POTERIE. .

Bibliography

Mary Blume, "Cote d'Azur. Inventing the French Riviera" (Thames and Hudson, London 1982) Stephen Liegeard, "La Cote d'Azur (Ed.Serre, Nice 1988), Guide du Routard 1998-99, Patrick Howarth, “When the Riviera was ours” (Century, London 1977, “Greek Settlements on the Medterranean”, essay by J.Moss, “Antibes la belle “, by Jean Centurion (ed. Nice publ. 1991), “Picasso après le guerre”, by.J.Bornet (ed.Litard, Paris 1996, “Ceramiques à la Cote d’Azur”, J.Foulques and B.Borderie (Ed. OeuvresArt 1998)

From Nice to Saint-Tropez (suite)

Cap d'Antibes

Juan les
Pins-Golfe-Juan-Vallauris

Cannes

Iles de Lerins

La Napoule and Henry Clews

Esterel cornice to Frejus

Frejus

Sainte Maxime to Port Grimaud

Old Grimaud and Cogolin

Saint-Tropez

From Saint Tropez to Cassis

Ramatuelle-Gassin-Croix Valmer-Cavalaire sur mer

Le Lavandou-Bormes les Mimosas