Myth and Reality in Nice

First published: August 27, 2013 by France Today Editors

“You lead such a glamorous life,” sighed a friend on the phone from London. I had just returned from tackling the traffic in Monaco, rushing with breakneck speed through the supermarket at Beaulieu-sur-Mer, only to make it by a minute for the school pick-up in Nice. Somehow, at that very moment my life felt anything but glamorous.

For the past five years I have called Nice on the Côte d’Azur my home. Most of my time is spent dealing with the same prosaic realities of any working parent. However, people who do not live here often miss this point. But I can’t blame them. Life is different in many respects.

The glittering Côte d’Azur conjures up a myriad of images of the high life under blue skies – from extravagant cocktail parties to luxury yachts and Ferraris. Conspicuous consumption mixed with old-school chic keeps the Riviera – and its myth of eternal glamour – alive. Russian oligarchs, minor and major European royalty plus acolytes, Hollywood stars and Middle East playboys all flock here, just as their counterparts did at the turn of the century.

The French Riviera is “a sunny place for shady people,” as Somerset Maugham famously quipped. It takes one to know one, as Maugham was an infamous party-thrower and decadent. His St-Jean Cap Ferrat home, Villa Mauresque, was the scene of many a debauched evening.

It is perhaps apt, in this current economic crisis criss-crossed with extravagant wealth that two new movies this year turn the spotlight on the Côte d’Azur. In some ways what we see is a romanticism of the French Riviera at its most fashionable – from the 1920s through to the 1950s. The first movie is Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, which opened the Cannes Film Festival last May and the second, a bio-pic of Grace Kelly.

Although The Great Gatsby is set in Long Island, New York, F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda’s names are forever linked with the Côte d’Azur. The final half of the novel was written once Fitzgerald had moved here in 1923. They were part of the ‘Bright Young Things’, so-named for their post-war carefree attitude. Young, privileged and rich, the Côte d’Azur was their playground. The villa the Fitzgeralds rented during the 1920s near Juan Les Pins was recently up for sale at $35.5 million, with much made about its famous literary connection. No doubt Tender is the Night, Fitzgerald’s novel set on the French Riviera will enjoy a renaissance thanks to the film.

Also due for release is Grace of Monaco, with Nicole Kidman in the eponymous role. The film makers had permission to shoot in Monaco but now appear to have upset their hosts, the Grimaldi family. Princess Grace’s three children recently issued a statement expressing their displeasure, claiming the film “portrays only a part of her life and has been pointlessly glamourised and contains important historical inaccuracies”.

Taking umbrage with a Hollywood film about a movie star turned princess does have irony. On a superficial level, the French Riviera is all about pointless glamour. Yet for most of us who live here, life is also remarkably down to earth, albeit with a sprinkling of gold dust. I still pinch myself when I drive through Monaco or take a dip in the sea at St Jean. The blurring between myth and reality touches everyone here. So I will let my friends keep believing the myth. It is certainly more fun that way.

Originally published in the June-July 2013 issue of France Today

Originally from New Zealand, writer Rebecca lived in Hong Kong and London before moving to Nice with her family to work as a property finder.

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