1936 On the Continent

Venus, and the automobile which has just drawn up in front of the Carlton belongs to Lord and Lady Mountbatten, cousins of King Edward VIII. The hotels on the Croisette are all luxurious palaces. Each of them, the Martinez, Miramar, Carlton, Majestic, Grand Hotel, have lowered their prices in the last two or three years by at least 30 or 40 per cent. In all of them you can now find rooms for 40 or 50 francs and full
pension
for 80 or a 100.
    There are plenty of cheaper hotels too, in Cannes as well as in the suburbs or adjoining towns. For instance,you can stay at Cannet up on the heights, where you have wonderfully fresh breezes and a perfect view, or again at Super-Cannes.
    Cannes is also an ideal centre for the golfer. You can get an excellent game at the Cannes Golf Club at La Napoule, or if you prefer more picturesque surroundings you can run up to Mougins, an ancient Roman village, where there is another golf course. At Mougins, after or before the game, you should climb the tower of the monastery and see from there the immense coast-line of the whole Riviera. With a good telescope you can even make out Corsica.
    There is no longer any need to advertise the excellences of the Cannes tennis courts. Their reputation has already gone the round. There are myriads of them, and you have only to follow the example of the Prince of Wales, who played one day at the Cannes Lawn Tennis Club, the next at the Gallia Lawn Tennis Club and then in succession on the courts of the Hotel Metropole, Carlton and Beau Site.
    Most of the clubs have international tournaments at least twice a year, and the very best French and foreign players take part in them.
Distinguished Refugees
    Cannes shelters an immense colony of political refugees. There are former members of the Russian nobility everywhere. They take an active part in all that is going on around them, though some of them prefer to live almost exclusively among themselves. There are refugees from other countries as well. Venizelos lived in Cannes for many years (his name has even been given to one of the streets), and the other exile from Greece, King George II, was often to be seen there too. Queen Amelie of Portugal, the former Queen of Rumania, the family of the former Sultan of Turkey, and of course Alphonse XIII of Spain and his followers, are all assiduous visitors to the big hotels of the Croisette or to the magnificent villas on the outskirts of the town.
    There is one visit that you absolutely must make before leaving Cannes; but only if you are a man, or unless women readers are prepared to dress up in one of theirhusband’s suits, tuck their hair under a wide trilby and carefully wipe the lipstick from their lips. For I am referring to the famous monastery of the Iles de Lérins, opposite Cannes, and no feminine foot is allowed to cross the threshold. Even apart from the monastery, the islands are themselves lovely places, and on leaving Saint Honorat you should also visit the Ile Sainte Marguerite to see the fort and the prison of the Iron Mask.
    By now you have only a few days left, so we had better hurry away from Cannes before you lose all chance of seeing the many charming and interesting places that still remain to be seen on the French Riviera. If you leave via Bocca, perhaps you will see Maurice Chevalier at the window of his villa, with the beautiful Kay Francis and Lilian Harvey (whose own villa, I forgot to mention, is at Cap d’Antibes).
    You will pass in succession La Napoule, Theoule-sur-Mer and La Trayas, three small but attractive resorts which are becoming better known and appreciated each year. Then the magnificent Riviera road, the Corniche d’Or, will carry you towards Saint Raphael and Sainte Maxime.
    Saint Raphael (10,000 inhabitants) is both a winter and a summer resort, but the growing reputation of Sainte Maxime, and especially of St. Tropez, has rather put it in the shade in recent years. Sainte Maxime is a thoroughly gay and lively place, frequented more by the French than by foreigners, and gaining in popularity every year. Along with St. Tropez, which was discovered just as Villefranche and Cagnes by painters and artists owing to the incomparable quaintness and charm of its old port, Sainte Maxime is gradually becoming one of the most fashionable resorts of the French Mediterranean coast and is competing seriously with Nice and Cannes.
St. Tropez
    When you get out of your car or bus at St. Tropez Ville, on the Place du Quinzième