With ultra-glamorous nightclubs, casinos and restaurants, designer boutiques lining the seafront and a harbour that is home to some of the most exclusive yachts on the Med, the town of Saint Tropez could be described as being the ultimate hub for the rich and famous living on and visiting the Cote d’Azur.

Saint Tropez has long be the source of attractive headlines if not solely for the sheer ‘class’ and ‘status’ of many of the people who visit this well-heeled town. Although recently, Saint Tropez has made the headlines for a different reason entirely, announcing that it is to observe the Year of India in 2012.

Saint Tropez town council has collaborated with the Indian Ministry of Tourism, which collectively decided to observe 2012 as the Year of India in Saint Tropez.

So what exactly does ‘observing the Year of India 2012’ entail for Saint Tropez?

Saint Tropez may be buzzing with vibrant, colourful and heavily-attended events all year round but 2012 is seeing an exceptionally frequent amount of cultural events, sporting tournaments, exhibitions, concerts, gastronomic events and even fashion shows, to mark the partnership between Saint Tropez and the Indian Ministry of Tourism.

Read full post

In 1956 a 21-year-old Bridgette Bardot visited Picasso at his studio in Vallauris, Cannes, during the Cannes Film Festival. Many photographs of the stunning French actress, who in 1956, was at the height of her ‘beauty’, ‘demand’ and ‘fame’, were taken during her meeting with Picasso in Cannes and are yet more proof of Bardot’s life-long love-affair with the Cote d’Azur.

Similar to Bridgette Bardot, Pablo Picasso also had an extremely publicised magnetism with the Cote d’Azur and the legendary Spanish artist lived thee for many years. During his time living on the Cote d’Azur, Picasso jumped from Antibes in 1946 to Vallauris in 1947 to Cannes in 1955, where he bought the magnificent 19^th century “La Villa California”, to Mougins in 1961, where the painter died in 1973.

Living in the various towns on the Cote d’Azur, Picasso reportedly experienced many love stories – both romantically and artistically and it has been described that it was the Cote d’Azur which exuded the ‘creative intensity’ from within Picasso and ‘pushed his genius and formidable love of life’.

If you too , like Bridget Bardot some 56 years ago, have yearnings to experience a touch of Picasso in the painter’s most inspirational of places, then visiting the ‘Picasso, les chemins du sud’ exhibition in Cannes is most definitely recommendable.

Read full post

Fancy visiting a truly unique and inspiring art exhibition in France this summer? If so, then let us draw your attention to two major exhibitions taking place at the ‘Villa Arson’ in Nice this summer.

‘Ben signe Nice’

You may or may not have heard of a movement known as Fluxus. If you haven’t heard of Fluxus, then it’s a name derived from the Latin meaning ‘to flow’, and is used to describe a network of composers, designers and artists from around the world, which in the 1960s, were noted for combining and blending various artistic disciplines and media.

It is within this premise that the ‘Ben Signe Nice’ exhibition has been crafted, which marks the 50^th anniversary of the Fluxus movement. From July 1 until October 28 2012, ‘Villa Arson’ is home to a temporary boxing ring, which is identical to the ring set up in Cologne in the ‘Happenings and Fluxus’ exhibition of 1970.

The boxing ring will be surrounded by various artworks and objects and various performances will take place in the ring to which the public can go and watch.

‘A la vie deliberee’

Also running from July 1 until October 28 2012 is ‘A la vie deliberee’ exhibition, which looks at the history of performance on the Cote d’Azur from the 1950s until the present day.

Read full post

In the 1800s, Monte Carlo wasn’t the glamorous, luxurious, fine dining and unparalleled shopping and entertainment, the ‘Las Vegas of Europe’ is world-renowned for today.

On the contrary, in the 1800s the town of Monte Carlo was a much quieter, passive and less well-known part of the Cote d’Azur. In fact, so ‘quiet’ was Monte Carlo, that in the 1870s, Prince Charles III, the Prince of Monaco and Duke of Valentinois, due to a lack of cultural diversions available in Monaco, decided to open an opera house.

What is known as the Salle Garnier was opened in 1879 and was originally Prince Charles III’s private theatre, reserved only for himself and his family.

The design and construction of the Salle Garnier was carried out by the legendary French architect Charles Garnier, best-known for designing the Palais Garnier, one of the most famous opera houses in the world and a powerful symbol of Paris. The Salle Garnier was an exact replica of the Palais Garnier in Paris, although an albeit scaled down version, having just 524 seats.

In 1879 the first opera was performed at Monte Carlo’s Salle Garnier, the French composer of songs and operettas, Robert Planquestte’s Le Chevalier Gaston.

Throughout the twentieth century many great opera performers played at the Salle Garnier, including Feodor Chaliapin, Nellie Melba and Enrico Caruso and Monte Carlo quickly gained a reputation as being a thriving hub of opera sensations. Whilst the Salle Garnier’s “Golden Age”, which occurred in the early twentieth century, may have passed, today the legendary opera house still boasts a thriving production calendar, presenting between five and six operas a season.

Read full post