RIVIERA QUEEN Story & Photography : Keith Mundy
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theBangkok Post magazine THETRIP RIVIERA QUEEN Story & Photography : Keith Mundy 1 BASKING IN THE HISTORY OF NICE. 051 THETRIP 2 hundred things I’d not noticed in the ignorance of youth. Those hills, for instance, must have been Cimiez, once called Cemenelum, capital of the Ancient Roman province of Alpes Maritimae. In what is now a leafy suburb, some ruins remain – an arena, amphitheatre and thermal baths – as does Cimiez Monastery, which was used by Franciscan monks since the 16th century. Great art is found in these verdant hills too: a red ochre villa which houses the Matisse Museum and lower down a modern museum dedicated to Marc Chagall. Both artists spent long periods here in Nice. It was also in Cimiez that Nice first became fashionable. To the hills flocked winter visitors, the European aristocracy and haute bourgeoisie, who gave free rein to their whims, erecting châteaux and villas amid luxuriant gardens, fostered by an he first time I went to a black maria, checked our papiers, exceptional microclimate. Open Nice, they kicked me out. drove us up into the suburban hills to the Mediterranean’s warmth, The second time, they and dumped us. shielded from cold northerly T hosted me. C’est la vie. It was like a scene in a Western and easterly winds by the Alpes Back in the days of Beat, movie, where the sheriff takes Maritimes mountains, Nice enjoys there was a gang of us – beatniks, undesirables to the city limits and about 2,800 hours of sunshine a year, hitchhikers, students – who hung barks, “Git outta town!” and its luminosity has attracted both out beside the Bay of Angels, on Of course, it being well past fine painters and rich sunseekers for the grand sweep of the Promenade midnight, we just walked straight two centuries. des Anglais, the seafront boulevard, back into town. Toting his conga An English doctor called John playing guitars and drums, sleeping drum, Eddie from New York laid Bunnell Davis set the ball rolling on the beach. It was high summer, in down a beat for us to boogie back to in 1807 with a book extolling the more ways than one, and we young the beach. Nearing the city centre, location’s virtues. He praised “the sun-seekers had fetched up there we came upon a dry concrete softness of the climate, the serenity from Germany or Britain, Denmark riverbed which disappeared into a of the sky, the brilliance of the sun, or America, drawn by the Riviera’s tunnel. A bedroom, in other words. and the numerous beauties of nature biggest city. Recently, I went to the Riviera’s that on every side surround you,” Living off pan bagnat – the local capital again, and this time things which made a place where “the sandwich made of a round loaf were totally the opposite: the breathing is free, the body light, and stuffed with lettuce, black olives, authorities invited me. Instead of a the same harmony seems equally hardboiled egg, tuna and tomatoes – starvation diet and a sleeping bag, to prevail in the human frame as in we didn’t think we were doing any I had four-star hotel rooms and the circumjacent scenery.” He was harm, but one evening the cops proper cuisine. boosting Nice to the upper classes in thought otherwise, packed us into And I discovered a city with a poor health. 052 theBangkok Post magazine OPEN TO THE MEDITERRANEAN’S WARMTH, NICE ENJOYS ABOUT 2,800 HOURS OF SUNSHINE A YEAR. Once Napoleon had been approval – as Tsar Nicholas II did 3 defeated in 1815 and peace prevailed too – and Nice became the queen of on the continent, the British in the Riviera. particular began to flock to Nice, After World War I, however, mostly for their health, and always the grandiose Regina fell victim in winter. For visitors from the icy to changing tastes, and was finally climes of northern Europe, it was turned into apartments in 1934. a place where winter did not exist, People now wanted to be beside where autumn segued into spring, the sea, not up in the hills, and the missing the cold season altogether. fabulous Hotel Negresco had opened For the many sufferers of tuberculosis in 1912 on the Promenade des in particular, that winter warmth was Anglais to cater to the new beach crucial, and Dr Davis did wonderful lovers, coming to dominate the PR for the city. One French historian luxury market and gain legendary wrote, “This physician sent to our status, its great pink cupola and shores a colony of pale, blonde brilliant white facade presiding Englishwomen and listless sons of over the seafront. Since 1957, the the nobility near death,” whose deep Negresco has been in the hands of pockets laid a firm foundation for the one family, which has made it into city’s success as a grand place a hotel of staggering opulence with of leisure. its own unique style, including an If sickness started Nice off as a outstanding art collection and mink resort, by the end of the 19th century bedspreads. You are welcomed by it was a destination for anybody of doormen dressed like 19th-century ample means to bask in its winter coachmen complete with red-plumed warmth for the sheer pleasure of postillion hats, and Miles Davis – 4 it. In the Belle Epoque, from 1870 via a gaudy statue by Niki de Saint to 1914, Nice came into its own Phalle – trumpets you through as the most luxurious city of the the door. Mediterranean, filled with opulent The Promenade des Anglais – and ornate buildings. When Queen Promenade of the English – was first Victoria – monarch of the world’s laid out and named in 1822, by the greatest power – repeatedly came English themselves. By the 1920s, to stay here, Nice knew it had truly it was a broad sidewalk extending made it. in a gentle curve all along the new The city actually built an seafront, the place to take the sea enormous palace of a hotel air and to be seen, for visitors from specifically to suit her. In the hills all over the world. By the 1930s, of Cimiez there rose the Excelsior the Riviera as a whole had become Regina Palace with 400 rooms and more of a summer destination than fine views over Nice and out across a winter one, and Nice was basking the Bay of Angels. The queen duly in year-round popularity – with Art came to stay three springs running, Deco the modish style, extravagantly for six weeks in 1897 and 1898, and exemplified by the huge Palais eight weeks in 1899, confirming the de la Mediterranée casino and Regina as one of the world’s greatest entertainment centre which rose up hotels as well as possibly the biggest. on the Promenade. The great queen had given her It’s a city whose character was 053 THETRIP FACT FILE 5 Air France flies via Paris to Nice; special fares are available to many French cities, starting at 27,280 baht inclusive. For more, visit www.airfrance.com/th or Tel : 0 2610 0808. Hotel Negresco, 37 Promenade des Anglais; Tel : +33 04 9316 6400; www.hotel-negresco-nice.com. The most opulent hotel on the Riviera. MAMAC, Place Yves Klein; Tel: +33 04 9713 4201; www.mamac- nice.org. Modern art museum. Nice Tourism Office, 5 Promenade des Anglais; Tel:+33 08 9270 7407; www.nicetourisme.com T o Nice T o Mus»e National Villages Message Bibique Marc defined by the building booms of French in 1860. Chagal,Cimiez hill & Mus»e Matisse Cathedrale Orthodoxe Main Train the Belle Epoque and Art Deco Old Nice also hosts many grand Russe St-Nicolas Station Boule vard Carabacel Av enue Thiers eras, which gives it a grandeur buildings of the Savoy period, its Av enue Jean Medecin unlike anywhere else on the Riviera. ducal palace, opera house, law T o Saint- Paul-de- betta Mus»e d'Art et V e rce d'Art contemporain It has weight too, as a prosperous courts and senate, indicating its d Gam o var BoulevardVictor Hug Promenade du Paillon commercial hub boasting a former power, as well as the baroque Boule Place T o Mus»e des Mass»na Mus»e Jardin Beaux-Arts Albert 1er population nearing 400,000 and gems of St Reparata Cathedral Mass»na Parc du ChÇteau France’s busiest airport outside and Miséricorde Chapel. Come Anglais Quai des Promenade des Ötats-Unis Vieux Nice Baie des Anges Paris, as well as the glamour of some night time, in a big change from its legendary film studios. Nevertheless, poorer past when it was a decidedly its historical core is of a completely dodgy area, the old town takes on different kind. its new role of party animal, its NICE Walk east along the seafront pedestrianised streets pulsating with 1. Arcaded buildings of the Place Massena, towards the Castle Hill that ends lively bars and clubs, while in the Nice’s main square. the bay, and you enter another, broad Cours Saleya – in daytime 2. The Fine Arts Museum inhabits a older world. Old Nice is a warren the location of the famous Flower Belle Epoque mansion. of narrow alleys and little squares, Market -- are some of Nice’s best 3. The narrow streets of the old town. packed with tall tenements painted restaurants, where the tasty local 4. TDisplay in the famous Flower Market. in bright colours, washing hanging cuisine can be sampled. 5. Sunny apartment blocks typical of out from shuttered windows.