Page 234 - (DK Eyewitness) Back Roads Travel Guide - France

232 BACK ROADS FRANCE

The Riviera Artists’ Trail
Chapelle
du Rosaire
Whether it is the quality of the light, the blue Mediterranean sea or simply
VENCE
the clarity of the Provençal air, the Côte d’Azur has long attracted the world’s
most renowned artists. Impressionists Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir
were the first to make the French Riviera their base. Other artists, catching
word of the region’s unique, vibrant light, soon followed. Henri Matisse first
visited Nice in 1917, and for the next 35 years he divided his days between SAINTPAULDEVENCE
Nice and Vence. Pablo Picasso, smitten by the coast after visiting in the 1930s,
spent the next four decades in Golfe Juan, Vallauris, Antibes and Mougins. Marc La Colle-
Chagall moved to Provence in the 1940s, eventually settling in Saint-Paul-de- sur-Loup
Vence with his wife; the village is now a shrine to modern art. Today, in spite
of the various popularity swings and style changes, the Riviera continues to St-Donnat
Pas-de-
boast one of the most prolific outpourings of creativity in the world. Sénès

Villeneuve-
Loubet
Mardaric Logis-du-Loup

BIOT
St-Pierre

La Croix-
MOUGINS Rouge
ACTIVITIES St-Maymes
Cabrières
Browse the myriad art galleries in St-Jean
ANTIBES
and around Vieux-Nice’s winding VALLAURIS
pedestrianized streets
Le Cannet
Step away from the tourist crowds for Juan-
Rocheville Golfe-Juan
an hour of peaceful contemplation in les-Pins
Matisse’s Chapelle du Rosaire in Vence Super-
Cannes
Lunch in the gardens of St-Paul-de-
Cap
Vence’s famed La Colombe d’Or; Golf e d’Antibes
follow it up with a privileged wander J uan
CANNES
around their private art collection
Visit Antibes’ Château Grimaldi,
Pointe de la Croisette
Picasso’s former studio, and now home Palm Beach
to the Musée Picasso
Shop for the most exclusive Île Sainte-Marguérite
ceramics of Côte d’Azur at Galerie
Madoura, Vallauris
Îles de Lérins
Swim in the crystal-clear waters of
the star-studded beach in Cannes