Hosted by Ekaterina Istomina
On March 28, 1985, Marc Chagall, who sincerely loved this small town, died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. At the beginning of the 20th century, Leger, Miro, Matisse, Picasso and Braque lived here. In 2003, an exhibition of the Russian avant-garde was held here, and, as Liberation wrote at the time, "it featured 150 paintings by the largest representatives of the Russian avant-garde from 1908 to 1930." But do not think that St. Paul de Vence is some kind of luxurious artistic place.
The town of Saint-Paul de Vence, often called a village, is located in a triangle between Grasse, Cannes and Nice, in the depths of the French Riviera, from the sea - 30 minutes by car (15 minutes from Cote d airport `Azure). This is a true provincial hole, a small medieval town, which, having survived to this day, very wisely did not want to change - there are cafes of the 16th century, ceramic workshops and souvenir shops of the 15th century, cars are not allowed here. Saint-Paul-de-Vence is an authentic Middle Ages like the village of Eze, next to Monaco.
If you try to count all the houses in St. Paul de Vence, you get somewhere around 50 stone buildings - undersized, with crookedly carved windows, narrow doors. It is difficult to call them houses in the modern sense of the word, and it would be wrong to divide them into separate buildings. They have long since grown together with each other. As in the Middle Ages, here they measure the distance not by individual houses, but by entire streets, of which five have accumulated in Saint-Paul-de-Vence over all the centuries. St. Paul de Vence is somewhat similar to a shell overgrown with other shells, younger and smaller. Saint-Paul-de-Vence is an old town, like a turtle, as inactive, but alive, like a single organism.
The town stands on a hill, surrounded by a grove of pine trees, which smells pungent when the sun burns the trees. The first buildings here date back to the 12th century, in other words, by the standards of homespun Provence, Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a very young city, a new building. First, there was a tower on the hill, then the tower was surrounded by a fortress wall, it collapsed, but the holes in the walls were plugged with new stones - and now you can see how medieval masons "darned" the battle fortifications. The building heyday of Saint-Paul-de-Vence is attributed to the era of the reign of Francis I, a respected king in France, who waged bloody wars in Provence (including with the rulers of Monaco Grimaldi), and after he won, he ordered to rebuild the destroyed province anew. So, the residential center of St. Paul de Vence is the work of the masons of Francis I, and since then the houses have hardly been rebuilt. Under Francis, a new fortress wall was also built, beyond which the city has not gone since then, which is why St. Paul de Vence is also called not only a village, but also a fortress city.
The style of Francis I is a mixture of rustic Provençal and Genoese. And this is feng shui - there is always water in the form of fountains (stone flowerpots, bowls and even lion muzzles), there are flowers and trees - in flowerpots or wooden tubs. More modern buildings, erected after Francis I, were already built under the hill, but they also look like shell antiquity - a small market, two pharmacies, a bank.
Try to live in a medieval house for a day - a great adventure. There are two hotels in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, the oldest one is Hotel Le Saint-Paul. It is located on Grande Street, which means Central. The fact that this is a large and serious street can be judged by the fact that not two people, but three can disperse on it (two people can hardly disperse along other streets of the fortified city). Hotel Le Saint-Paul in the distant past was an ordinary inn with a ceramic shop, and in the 16th century this courtyard was bought by a wealthy man olive oil bourgeois and turned into his own city house. It is difficult to say why this bourgeois did not rebuild it at all - there is not a trace of the French bourgeoisness known to us here.
Medieval people were more short stature, but at the same time more complete than we are. Having settled in the Hotel Le Saint-Paul, we realized that medieval Europeans were very tiny: where a family lived, today even one person can hardly turn around. Hotel Le Saint-Paul is a stone labyrinth, a beehive, where instead of honeycombs there are hotel rooms with walls made of limestone fragments and undersized iron furniture.
The second hotel is world famous - "Golden Dove" (Hotel de la Colombe d`Or) with the restaurant of the same name. This is one of the most famous hotels on the Côte d'Azur, and it looks like a simple village tavern. The wedding of Yves Montand and Simone Signoret was played in the Golden Dove, and there are many black-and-white photographs on the walls of the hotel confirming this fact: Montand with a cigarette, Signoret with a scarf around his neck and with a glass of white wine. Opposite the hotel, they still play bowls, or rather, petanque, and Montand also played here many years ago.
But much earlier, in the 1920s, the Golden Dove had one wonderful owner, his name was Paul Roux. Sublime, captivating and in many ways advanced nature, this Monsieur Roux was completely delighted with the avant-garde and tried to draw himself - Pablo Picasso suggested this to him, most likely for the sake of a joke. Paul Roux did not succeed in drawing the way he wanted. But the failures did not harden him, Paul Roux wanted to see and hear the artists in his own house, in his "Golden Dove", and became for many of them a long-term friend, assistant and companion. Braque, Matisse, Picasso, Robert and Sophie Delaunay, Léger were guests at Roux's house. They left pictures here, just like that, just as a gift to the owner, and so gradually the hotel and tavern turned into a worthy art gallery. The paintings of the great masters calmly decorated the walls of the lobby and the restaurant. Unfortunately, the "Golden Dove" was ruthlessly plundered 20 years ago, however, all the paintings were found later, but now you cannot enter a hotel or a restaurant without a preliminary order. Jacques Prevert, François Truffaut, Brigitte Bardot, Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Romy Schneider - all these people have visited the Golden Dove more than once, leaving noisy villas and secular hotels of the brilliant French Riviera for it.
There are real museums in St. Paul de Vence. Such is a charming museum of musical instruments, which will be more amusing than such a museum in Vienna (it is located next to the "Golden Dove"). But on the other side of the hill, in a pine grove, in 1964 they built a fund-museum of modern art, also known as the Maeght Foundation (La Fondation Maeght). It was built by the architect Louis Ser, interior decoration was done by Miro and Braque, and the wall mosaic panel was made by Chagall - the great artist lived here for almost three decades. Marc Chagall is buried in the local cemetery of Saint-Paul-de-Vence, located outside the South Gate.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence, FranceSaint-Paul-de-Vence - an elegant haven of artists and entertainers
Saint-Paul-de-Vence (fr. St-Paul-de-Vence, ox. Sant Pau de Vença) is a commune on the Cote d'Azur of France, part of the Alpes-Maritimes department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. It is located south of the city of Vence. The population is about 3000 inhabitants.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence is one of the most beautiful places Provence (France).
This village arose at the turn of the 8th century, when the inhabitants of the coast, tired of the constant raids of the Saracens, went to the mountains and built well-fortified villages (“stone nests”) there. In 1538, by order of Francis I, this outpost was surrounded by a stone wall.
Saint-Paul on the map of France - one hour from Nice
Saint-Paul-de-Vence would have remained one of the many medieval fortified mountain villages of the Alpes-Maritimes, but it was distinguished from the general system by the fact that in the 1920s it was chosen by artists from Paris. Signac, Bonnard, Utrillo, Modigliani frequented Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
They stayed at the Golden Dove Hotel (Fr. La Colombe D "Or). Often they paid for the table and shelter with their work. The owner of the hotel, Paul Rouault, definitely did not lose. Now the hotel is the owner of the works of such world-famous artists as Utrillo, Vlaminck, Dufy, Bonnard, Soutine, Picasso, Modigliani, Cocteau, Chagall... These artists, having already become famous, did not forget St. Paul de Vence. As a result, both the village itself and the Golden Dove Hotel became a cult place for fans visual arts. On the walls of the hotel you can see the works of outstanding masters. The exposition is constantly changing.
Narrow old streets
Saint-Paul-de-Vence is adorned with numerous sculptures by outstanding masters of the 20th century:
Sculpture Rise of Fondacaro
Saint-Paul-de-Vence differed from similar "medieval" cities in France in that monuments, workshops, installations, mosaics and other art objects were found everywhere.
A horse that is tempting to ride. (The inscription prohibits)
Cat of Italian origin, the creation of Giuliano Mancini. In the background is La Petite Chapelle restaurant.
There is also a popular museum of modern art. The city gained fame in the 1920s. of the last century - in a local hotel "Golden Dove"(La Colombe D "Or) Parisian artists began to spend time. They often paid for housing with their works. Now the hotel holds a rich collection of originals by famous authors. After the artists, people of art - actors, writers, poets - came here en masse.
famous hotel
Of the famous names who visited Saint-Paul-de-Vence: Catherine Deneuve, Yves Montand, Greta Garbo, Brigitte Bardot. Simone Signoret and Yves Montand arranged a wedding in de Vence. He loved this place and lived in it until his death, Marc Chagall. His grave is located at the local cemetery - another attraction.
Burial place of Marc Chagall
And again the streets and houses of Saint-Paul-de-Vence
From various sources
Saint-Paul-de-Vence, located on the Cote d'Azur of France, is a place that is not just worth visiting once "for show", but which you should definitely visit whenever you find yourself in these parts. And I'll tell you why.
Saint-Paul-de-Vence until a certain point remained one of the many such settlements in the area. Like Eze, Gourdon, Peillon and other villages, it was formed far from the sea (from where the Saracens made their raids in the 8th century) on a mountain that could be surrounded by a fortress wall and effectively defended in case of emergency.
Passing over the centuries under the rule of one or the other owners of these territories, Saint-Paul existed relatively quietly and peacefully until the beginning of the 20th century. It was difficult to surprise any of the locals with the magnificent nature and views in those parts, however, with the rise of the Cote d'Azur as a resort, artists such as Bonnard, Vlaminck, Signac, Modigliani, Utrillo and many others came here in search of inspiration in the 1920s.
Some of them were little known at that time, some were not at all, but it was they who began to create the history of Saint-Paul-de-Vence as a bohemian and sybarite place. Usually, Parisian painters stayed at the Golden Dove Hotel (La Colombe D’Or) and painted landscapes of the surroundings, and then they also paid the owner of the establishment for food and a roof over their heads. The owner, named Paul Rouault, turned out to be far-sighted and in every possible way welcomed poor artists, whose works have grown significantly in price over several decades, and some are simply fabulous. Today, the heirs of Rouault own the works of such masters as Picasso, Modigliani, Cocteau, Chagall, Bonnard and many others, and the Golden Dove hotel and restaurant have become a cult place.
The fame of Saint-Paul-de-Vence was multiplied by French celebrities of the first magnitude - Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret, Francois Truffaut and Jean-Paul Sartre. Today, nothing prevents you from having lunch at a restaurant and staying at a hotel within walls that not only remember the color of world cinema and fine art, but are also hung with masterpieces. But it’s worth considering that you won’t get here just like that, you need to book rooms and tables much in advance.
A place with such a history, of course, is very popular and is included in all sightseeing routes along the Cote d'Azur. Therefore, closer to dinner, there is no free parking space at all entrances to Saint-Paul, large sightseeing buses bring more and more portions of tourists, and the streets of a small town sometimes resemble the subway at rush hour. So that the charm of this place does not evaporate under the influence of the crowd, go there, if possible, in the morning or in the evening, when numerous noisy groups have already subsided. Passing by the "Golden Dove" and a cafe located to the right of it with a playground for playing petanque, you can not join the slender flow of tourists, but immediately turn right. The landmark is a statue of a horse made of horseshoes. Going around Saint-Paul-de-Vence on the right side, you will see several restaurants and cafes with a gorgeous view of the surroundings. Choose your terrace and menu to your liking, order wines and enjoy the way the representatives of the French bohemia enjoyed here over the past century. Indeed, in essence, a person does not need so much to be happy - you feel it keenly right here in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, and you want to repeat this feeling again and again.
What else not to miss in Saint-Paul-de-Vence:(the largest collection of contemporary art in France)
The famous hotel and restaurant "Golden Dove"
Sartre, Chagall, Picasso, Brigitte Bardot and hundreds of other celebrities walked along these streets.
No matter how you look at it, it's beautiful everywhere!
This guy works here, and I've never seen a more effective silent barker.
After dinner with wine in such a place, even the thought of eternity when looking at the local VIP cemetery (Marc Chagall is buried here) does not set you in a sad mood, but rather awakens reflections that even after death everyone is far from being on an equal footing . Who wouldn't want to rest like that? According to the "view from the window" - the Mediterranean Sea, Cape d'Antibes and the valleys of the Riviera - this cemetery on the Cote d'Azur, in my opinion, is second only to the cemetery
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We were moving to Provence from Northern Italy, through Genoa, the overnight stay on the first day was planned near the Verdon Gorge, so according to the map, it was ideal for us to call in the famous town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence. This town - one of the most visited on the Cote d'Azur, is located very close to Nice. Surrounded by a fortress wall of the 16th century, the city lives its own life, unlike other cities. Medieval streets, of which there are very few in the city, form a kind of pilgrimage route through the numerous art galleries of the city. Modigliani, Picasso, Soutine, Matisse, Cocteau, Colette, Sartre, Yves Montand and Garbo, Sophia Loren and Alain Delon lived in this picturesque fortress at one time.
In Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France
To begin with, I will immediately warn you that the city is very, very small, and there are very, very many tourists who want to see it. It was the only city in Provence where there were crowds of tourists even without a market. But at the entrance there is a good multi-level parking. And in the city itself, try to turn off the main street to the secondary ones, and there will often not be a single person there at all! The soul of tourists is mysterious, who all go in the same crowds, without turning anywhere.
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The city has very interesting signs.
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Lots of interesting details.
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The city is located on a hill with amazing views!
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Probably, places in this cemetery are expensive.
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The imposing facades of the buildings on the main street date back to the 16th-18th centuries. Now all the streets inside the Old City are pedestrian. The most important thing is that you are not walking on faceless ruins, everything is very carefully restored, well organized and planned. And the air on the mountain is clean and transparent.
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At the beginning of the last century, the town remained very secluded, an ideal place for creativity, truly a paradise, away from the bustle of the city. Artists took a fancy to it at the beginning of the last century and created their own creative center here. Echoes of that time - an incredible number of galleries that still exist.
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Since ancient times, Saint-Paul-de-Vence has attracted with its excellent strategic position. The Celts and Ligurians were the first to choose these places. Then the Romans, about a hundred years before our era, rightfully forced them out. At the beginning of Christianity, the fortified town bore the long name Castrum Sancti Pauli, literally: the fortress of St. Paul. In 1537, King Francis I, recognizing the military importance of the city, ordered the expansion of the fortifications. This is understandable, because the fortress was located right at the borders of his empire. It is strange, of course, but it is a historical fact: the entire territory extending to the south, up to the Mediterranean Sea, including even the city of Nice, did not belong to France at all before. It became part of the country only in 1860. And before that, the places adjacent to Saint-Paul-de-Vence were the possessions of either the kingdom of Sardinia, or the county of Piedmont, or belonged to the Savoy ducal dynasty. All these feudal states have gone into oblivion, and Saint-Paul, once just a frontier post, has recently gained new life and is still blooming.
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Until the middle of the 17th century, Saint-Paul developed and grew rich. He was given an enviable title for those times - "Ville Royale", which meant - a city under the direct control of the French king. The city was already promised a great future. But in 1746, trouble happened - the Austrians captured it. Many buildings were destroyed. The industrious population restored most of the houses, but since then the importance of the city has noticeably and steadily declined. What can you do - times are changing, feudal duties have gone down in history, and the city no longer controlled strategic roads, as it was before. They were posted elsewhere. Yes, and in trade, it was clearly losing to the new settlements that formed in the valleys and off the coast. If they do not forget about the once significant city on the rock, then at least they do not take it more seriously, and the authorities do not allocate money for restructuring and its repair. But here is the irony of fate! In the long run, this turned out to be even good, because the ancient architectural heritage remained untouched, as if mothballed.
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Such a miraculously preserved ancient, romantic entourage attracted young, promising artists here at the very beginning of the 20th century. Since then, a new era of formation has come for the town. They began to vigorously equip it, but very intelligently, so as not to disturb the ancient color. It took a lot of effort to preserve the great architectural heritage that miraculously survived to this day. On the restoration of ancient buildings, architects worked together with historians and archaeologists, meticulously restored and updated, using reasonable planning, in order to preserve Saint-Paul as one of the most attractive places on the Côte d'Azur. A considerable merit in this is the scientists from the Maeght Foundation and .... the owners of the hotel-restaurant Colomb d'Or ("Golden Dove").
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It would seem, what do some innkeepers-shopkeepers have to do with it? Yes, this is an instructive story. The latter got rich under very interesting circumstances. The hotel and restaurant, located in a quarter of ancient buildings, was once a haven for poor artists, many of whom paid for shelter and food with their own creations, because they did not then have enough money. Among the inhabitants were masters who were recognized as geniuses only in the distant future. Can you imagine how much their works were then evaluated? But not all masterpieces have since gone on sale. To this day, the walls and garden of the institution are decorated with works by Picasso, Braque, Miro, Matisse, Léger, Calder, Chagall and many others.
All this happened because the owner of a restaurant named Paul Roux, also an aspiring artist, had a good heart and showed undeniably disinterested concern for the starving artists and writers. His first clients were Pagnol, Giono, Prevert, Picasso and Chagall, who later became famous. The fame of the generosity of the owner of the hotel grew every day. The number of customers grew, and with it the status of Colomb d'Or, as a gastronomic temple of art. Being a regular was considered prestigious. You could see celebrities there, and even be seen by them. Thanks to this, the restaurant and cafe were expanded, and the hotel was rebuilt for more number of rooms. That's when the "Golden Dove" really became golden. No wonder they say, as "you name the ship, so it will sail." Artists, then inhabitants, later becoming famous, never forgot either Saint-Paul-de-Vence or the hospitable hotel Paul Roux died in the early 1950s very rich, and more importantly - famous person. His heirs still maintain this business, only formally maintaining the tradition.
smarty_yulia
16/08/2013
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