1936 On the Continent

francs and full
pension
from 30 francs upwards. The same prices are charged in Cimiez at the Alhambra, Grand Hotel, British Hotel Faletto, Floride, Helios, Petit-Palais and English Hotel Montmorency.
    Finally, on the Monte Carlo road, there is the Grand Hotel de Mont-Boron, the favourite retreat of writers, where rooms can be had from 20 francs and full
pension
from 40 francs.
    Apart from these hotels there are a good hundred “pensions” and small hotels where you can have full
pension
for between 25 and 30 francs a day, and rooms from 10 francs a day.
    Ten per cent, has, of course, to be added to these pricesfor service, and then the special “taxe de séjour,” which is only levied on the first twenty-eight days of your stay and ranges from 65 centimes to 3 francs 90 centimes a day, according to the type of hotel at which you are staying.
    You can get all the particulars you want concerning hotels, and even villas and furnished flats and apartments, from the Syndicat d’Initiative de Nice (13 Place Masséna). If necessary, they will answer you in English.
Restaurants, Dance-Halls, Cafés
    Practically all the hotels of any size have restaurants where you can get “table d’hôte” or “à la carte” meals for prices ranging from 10 to 35 francs (wine included). But if you want to try the local dishes, you should go to one of the restaurants of the Quai des Etats-Unis (for instance, La Pergola) or Chez Buteau in the Old Town, whose dishes, particularly the fish and the raviolis, are famous throughout the whole of France.
    When you feel like dancing, you have only to drop into one of the big hotels of the Promenade des Anglais (particularly the Negresco and the Ruhl, or the Palais de la Méditerranée) round about tea-time, and you will find a
thé-dansant
in full swing, with a magnificent floor and band at your disposal. The drinks need not cost you more than 10 francs apiece. In the evenings, the same hotels give gala balls with special numbers put on by the leading French and foreign film and stage stars. In the season there is also dancing at the Casino de la Jetée and the Casino Municipal. The most cosmopolitan cabarets and dance-halls are at present the Perroquet and the Plantation, where drinks will cost you anything from 15 or 20 francs upwards. The latter seems to have a particular attraction for writers and artists, and you will often see there, among many others, the famous German writers Heinrich Mann and Walter Hasenklever.
    Most of the big cafés are on the Avenue de la Victoire, but some of the others are worth visiting too: the Café de Paris, for instance, on the rue Pasterelli, which has an orchestra and is mainly frequented by the French themselves. There is the Massena too and the Albert 1er. The Albert 1er seems to be particularly popular and crowded nowadays, perhaps because of its orchestra. Then youcan pass a very enjoyable and refreshing hour or two sitting outside the big cafés of the Promenade des Anglais, such as the Café de France and the Montparnasse de Nice with its medley of writers and artists of every nationality.
Something for the Ladies
    Now that you know pretty well all there is to tell about hotels, restaurants, casinos, cafés, and places to dance, I shall go on to talk about more serious matters, such as clothes for the woman!
    Perhaps you are not aware that in Nice and on the French Riviera in general, the average standard of elegance and chic is far higher than in any European capital.
    At the gala balls of the Negresco or the Ruhl, presided over by Maurice Chevalier, Mistinguett or Marlene Dietrich, you will see more examples of the very latest fashions than even Paris or London could show you, except two or three times a year.
    And you mustn’t forget that the famous Promenade des Anglais is really and truly a promenade, somewhere to stroll and lounge about in, as the Avenue de Bois in Paris used to be before the War, or the Kärtnerstrasse in Vienna, or the Corso de Danube in Budapest. Between 11 and 12 o’clock in the morning no self-respecting
Nicoise
, or even
Nicois
, would think of failing to take a stroll in the Promenade des Anglais so as to get a glimpse of the latest thing worn by the Baronne de Rothschild or Madame Titulesco or Mrs. Morgan. In a single morning, if that kind of accountancy happened to interest you, you could count a dozen or so genuine princesses, marchionesses, countesses and grand-duchesses, with or without their princes,