Get swept up in the glitz and glamour of the French Riviera as author and filmmaker John Baxter takes readers on a whirlwind tour through the star-studded cultural history of the Côte d'Azur that's sure to delight travelers, Francophiles, and culture lovers alike. Readers will discover the dramatic lives of the legendary artists, writers, actors, and politicians who frequented the world's most luxurious resort during its golden age. In 25 vivid chapters, Baxter introduces the iconic figures indelibly linked to the South of France—artist Henri Matisse, who lived in Nice for much of his life; F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose Riviera hosts inspired his controversial Tender is the Night; Coco Chanel, who made the Saint-Tropez tan an international fashion statement; and many more. Along the way, Baxter takes readers where few people ever get to go: the alluring world of the perfume industry, into the cars and casinos of Monte Carlo, behind-the-scenes at the Cannes Film Festival, to the villa where Picasso and Cocteau smoked opium, and to the hotel where Joseph Kennedy had an affair with Marlene Dietrich. Then maps and listings show travelers how these luminaries celebrated life and made art amid paradise.

Discovering painting at the age of 40, Sir Winston Churchill revelled in his new pastime. He went on to produce over 550 paintings, with over 130 of them on the French Riviera. The fellow artist and Riviera resident Paul Rafferty has tracked down many of the locations Churchill used in Provence, an area the great man so aptly called 'paintatious'. Many of these locations are newly discovered and his 'fearless impressions' stand alongside to illustrate how Churchill captured them on canvas.

The French Riviera of the 1920s and early '30s was a haven for artists and writers from the far reaches of the world. This book revitalizes the now-legendary tale of personalities such as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Picasso, Picabia, Cocteau, and Gerald and Sara Murphy as they are caught between a desire for creation, the quest for happiness, and the looming darkness of World War II. Extraordinary images taken from personal archives reanimate the lifestyles and artwork of some of the most influential artists of the twentiety century.

In this irresistible marriage of watercolorist’s sketchbook and traveler’s guide, Virginia Johnson lovingly captures the magic of one of the world’s most storied regions, the French Riviera. We walk the Promenade des Anglais in Nice. Shop for handmade sandals at Rondini in Saint-Tropez. Visit the Madoura workshop in Antibes, where Picasso discovered his genius for pottery. Meet legendary characters like Pierre Gruneberg, a swimming instructor who taught Jean Cocteau, Brigitte Bardot, Paul McCartney, and many others. Saturated with the limpid colors of sea and sun, the dazzling greens of verdant gardens, and the rose and ochre of sunbaked villas and joyous with paisleys and blue-striped sailor’s shirts and the riotous look of a patisserie window filled with confections, Travels Through the French Riviera is a gift book of visual wonder, the souvenir every Francophile will want. But it is also a quirky yet singularly useful travel guide, whether showing how to order coffee like a local, plan a beach day at Menton, or hike the Cap Ferrat peninsula or where to taste the best ice cream in Antibes (at Amarena—try the mint).

The French Riviera as Eden and muse for modern artists. The French Riviera has been a fabled resort for more than a century. As an enclave for the rich and famous, as well as a scenic tourist spot, it represents all that is beautiful and amusing. But for many of the twentieth century's finest painters, sculptors, photographers, and architects it has been much more: a place of potent myth and extraordinary creativity. Picasso, Matisse, Beckmann, Brancusi, Lartigue, Le Corbusier, and Eileen Gray, among many others, were inspired to create some of their greatest work on the Cote d'Azur. This study examines the impact of modernity and the artistic imagination on an idyllic landscape. Touching on the issues of pleasure and escape, work and leisure, and desire and ecstasy, Making Paradise offers a fresh look at the Cote d'Azur and its historical significance as a site for modernist innovation from 1890 to the present. Beginning with the neoimpressionists, moving to the Fauves, and ending with such contemporary artists as David Hockney and Faith Ringgold, the book examines the splendid light and terrain of the southeastern coast of France and the region's influence on the artists who worked and played there. Like the book, the exhibition it accompanies features unexpected juxtapostitions: masterworks by Bonnard and Picasso with the photographs of Lartigue and Model; the villas of Le Corbusier, Gray, and Mallet-Stevens with designs for the Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo; and ceramics of Picasso with the found-object constructions of the Ecole de Nice of the early 1960s. Copublished with the AXA Gallery, New York. Exhibition information AXA Gallery New York, New York April 26-July 14, 2001

"The French Riviera, spring 1936. It's off-season in the lovely seaside village of Juan-les-Pins, where seventeen-year-old Ondine cooks with her mother in the kitchen of their family-owned Cafe Paradis. A mysterious new patron who's slipped out of Paris and is traveling under a different name has made an unusual request--to have his lunch served to him at the nearby villa he's secretly rented ... Pablo Picasso is at a momentous crossroads in his personal and professional life--and for him, art and women are always entwined ... New York, present day. Caeline, a Hollywood makeup artist who's come home for the holidays, learns from her mother Julie that Grandmother Ondine once cooked for Picasso"--

The author of the bestselling The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family brings her trademark brio and relish to the charming and fascinating world of the Château de l'Horizon on the French Riviera. The Riviera Set reveals the story of the group of people who lived, partied, bed-hopped and politicked at the Château de l'Horizon near Cannes, over the course of forty years from the time when Coco Chanel made southern French tans fashionable in the twenties to the death of the playboy Prince Aly Khan in 1960. At the heart of dynamic group was the amazing Maxine Elliott, the daughter of a fisherman from Connecticut, who built the beautiful art deco Château and brought together the likes of Noel Coward, the Aga Khan, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and two very saucy courtesans, Doris Castlerosse and Daisy Fellowes, who set out to be dangerous distractions to Winston Churchill as he worked on his journalism and biographies during his 'wilderness years' in the thirties. After the War the story continued as the Château changed hands and Prince Aly Khan used it to entertain the Hollywood set, as well as launch his seduction of and eventual marriage to Rita Hayworth Bringing a bygone era back to life, Mary Lovell cements her spot as one of our top social historians in this captivating and evocative new book.

A wildly entertaining and surprisingly educational dive into art history as you've never seen it before, from the host of the beloved ArtCurious podcast We're all familiar with the works of Claude Monet, thanks in no small part to the ubiquitous reproductions of his water lilies on umbrellas, handbags, scarves, and dorm-room posters. But did you also know that Monet and his cohort were trailblazing rebels whose works were originally deemed unbelievably ugly and vulgar? And while you probably know the tale of Vincent van Gogh's suicide, you may not be aware that there's pretty compelling evidence that the artist didn't die by his own hand but was accidentally killed--or even murdered. Or how about the fact that one of Andy Warhol's most enduring legacies involves Caroline Kennedy's moldy birthday cake and a collection of toenail clippings? ArtCurious is a colorful look at the world of art history, revealing some of the strangest, funniest, and most fascinating stories behind the world's great artists and masterpieces. Through these and other incredible, weird, and wonderful tales, ArtCurious presents an engaging look at why art history is, and continues to be, a riveting and relevant world to explore.

Overlooking the Aegean Sea, a charming string of coastal neighborhoods form the Athens Riviera, a serene escape from the constant activity in the city's center. A selection of high-end hotels lines the pristine stretch of beaches down to the southernmost point of the Attica Peninsula. The revamped Four Seasons Astir Palace, with a history of housing foreign dignitaries and film stars of the 1960s, is the most luxurious hotel in Athens, perhaps even in all of Greece. The night club, Island, is bringing back the glamour and excitement of the twentieth century bouzouki clubs reminiscent of names such as Melina Mercouri and Stavros Niarchos. Athens is experiencing a revival--in art, night life and design. For a metropolis constantly associated with the past, the modern strides in development and culture are sometimes overlooked in favor of the ruins and artifacts from antiquity. When in fact, the juxtaposition only enhances the beauty of both. Athens Riviera puts the old-world beside the new-world and a deeper understanding of this ancient capital emerges. With one foot in the past and one foot in the future; access to both the electricity of city life and the tranquility of a beach side resort, Athens cannot be defined in simple terms. One just has to experience it for themselves.