Paris

At the eastern edge of the Massif de l’Esterel, just beyond Cannes lies LA NAPOULE. Completely dedicated to mass tourism it is in fact a sea-front extension of Cannes and its satellite: MANDELIEU. Sandy beaches, a leisure port and the very peculiar CHATEAU DE LA NAPOULE.
Like it looks now, it was built on the medieval ruins shortly after WWI by the American billionaire banker’s son, sculptor and painter Henry Clews (1876-1937). Besides, the history of the Clews couple is part of the British-American folklore that made the contemporary fame of the Cote d’Azur.
Henry Clews liked to see himself in the part of Don Quichotte and thus he called his servantSancho and his son Mancha.

Henry Clews

The chateau he called “Mancha” too. He was strange as you see but he had enormous class. After WWI the couple moved from Paris to their dream-chateau in 1919. Everywhere you look now in the castle you can see Clew’s loveless, more likely hate-filled monstrous sculptures and sculptures of monsters. Let’s call it “idiosyncratic sculptures”. Clew himself liked his “art” very much and hid guests were compelled to compliment him about his “oeuvre”. The “beau-monde” that visited him generally was more aristocratic than bohemian :-).
We have an interesting testimony of a German diplomat, Count Harry Graf Kessler, also an “art connoisseur” and maecenas, who was their neighbour. About a dinner he had once he reports in his “Tagebucher 1918-1937” that already when he entered the chateau he characterises it as “Kino-Mittelalter” where the couple waits to welcome the guests. “The welcoming was astounding,” remembers the count, “Henry Clew in a white trouser and a sort of scarlet red, silk embroidered tunic going until the knee, his –very beautiful—wife as Queen of the Night, black with golden stars. Behind them three white dressed footmen, hands on the trouser-seam and behind the lackeys two splendid white bulldogs looking large Chinese statues”. Kessler seems satisfied about the cuisine and champagne, Clews talks a lot about Nietzsche and in an intelligent way, but Kessler is sure (he doesn’t know why but he “feels” it), that they were all filmed in that gothic dining-room all evening.
Clews was buried in his own castle garden, after hating ALL what was actual in the world during his existence. His widow founded a cultural institution, giving young French and American artists the opportunity to take some dubious inspiration during a few weeks in this contra - natura castle fantasy. Mary Clews died in 1959. Clews grandson Chistopher runs the place now.
This chateau de La Napoule has the advantage for the actual municipality that Mrs. Clews provided for the maintaining costs in her will. It can even be visited a few times a day with a guide, but the question is if these rare moments are in accordance with the schedule of the passing traveller.

Bibliography:

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), “Tagebucher 1918-1937”, by Harry Graf Kessler (Presseschau, Munchen 1961).

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