The Cote d’Azur was recently likened to an “unworldly youthful dame of great verve and beauty with an infinite power of imagination.”

The person who wrote these words was Alice Poon, a writer, who shares her thoughts with readers on her blog.

Ms Poon compares her “apt symbol” of the Cote d’Azur to Paris, “A mature lady of understated glamour in elegant poise, with a certain savoir-faire that comes from a polished culture and living with the best.”

Paris exudes romance, history, art, culture, fashion and style. For centuries Paris has been a great source of producing some of the finest fabrics on the world. Paris has long been a breeding ground for skilled designers and craftsmen, producing high-end, expensive fashion, copied across Europe and beyond spawning the very essence of the term ‘fashion capital’.

Given its age-old aptitude at creating world-mimicked, decorative clothing, Paris can certainly be considered as a “mature lady of understated glamour in elegant poise.”

Whilst Paris has been a mecca for the world’s most stylistically influential and elite, the Cote d’Azur, did not gain similar implications with such refinement and wealth until the mid-19^th century when it became a popular vacation spot of British, Russian and other aristocrats, such as King Edward VII and Queen Victoria.

In this sense, the Cote d’Azur, compared to its country’s capital, as an “unworldly youthful dame”, whereby comparatively recent aristocrats attracted by the ‘verve and beauty’ of the region, congregated to this spectacularly stunning region in their droves.

But it is Alice Poon’s “infinite power of imagination” quote what bears the greatest amount of truth.

Throughout the 20^th and 21^st centuries, the Cote d’Azur has been a popular destination for artists to live and create their work, transforming the Cote d’Azur into the greatest concentration of modern art in Europe.

Amongst the most famous names in art to have been inspired by this golden stretch of coastline, are Picasso, Leger and Chagall, with many of the fellow modernisers, including Dufy, Bonnard, Braque and Picabia, quickly following suit.

Given the fact that the Cote d’Azur became a magnet for the artistically talented, whose imaginations were no doubt inspiring by the surroundings of incredible natural beauty, art galleries, both old and new, museums, sculptures and monuments line this “youthful dame of great verve and beauty.”