Côte d’Azur History

Good genes, a positive attitude, and a formidable streak of independence – Madame Lucienne Frey offered the mayor and cardiologist alike these essentials for a long and beautiful life. To round out this season’s tête-à-têtes with people in Antibes, French Lessons celebrates the grande dame’s life and her enduring wisdom.

The Côte d’Azur has been bulldozing its beach restaurants. The demolition began a few years ago, wiping out celebrated haunts and their too-permanent installations. The image is shocking – but as ever, this coin has two sides. As the upheaval moves closer to home, French Lessons tries to understand.

We’re late, we’re late, for a very important date! The date? The first edition of French Lessons, version 2021, of course. We’re excités to say rebonjour – and have a good excuse for our tardiness: an all-consuming, slow-burn, pandemic passion.

Antibes is the lucky new owner of four, long-lost parchments from the princely House of Grimaldi.  French Lessons is the first visitor to glimpse these priceless pieces of heritage – decorative 14^th-century documents, negotiated between princes and an antipope, and now on display at the city’s Archives Municipales.

What’s life is like in the Côte d’Azur during this extraordinary 2020 season?  French Lessons readers want to know.  To answer travelers’ queries, or to bring the season closer to francophiles around the globe, we offer a glimpse of the area from our first days back. 

As Antibes marks its 75^thanniversary of Libération from occupying forces during World War II, French Lessons shares details we have gleaned over the years from websites, books, and the local archives.  We bring you into the streets on this pivotal day:  August 24, 1944.

The Côte d’Azur is in celebratory mood.  Parades and fireworks abound, but French Lessons discovers a whole lot of confusion.  What, exactly, are we celebrating – the patron saint of fishermen, the protector of sailors, or France’s continuing wins in the World Cup?

As World War II parades and wreath-laying ceremonies dot the Côte d’Azur this week, we mark 73 years since the area’s Libération from the occupying forces. Antibes, though, already has celebrated a 75^th wartime anniversary, thanks to a daring, undercover operation that unfurled in its inky bay.

French Lessons receives an unexpected gift: an out-of-the-blue email that introduces us to the earliest residents of our seaside home, Bellevue. After years of research and forged connections, often from unlikely places, we introduce readers to the family who may have been Bellevue’s first occupants.

In a special post to commemorate the 70^th anniversary of the Côte d’Azur’s Libération, French Lessons interviews a local woman who was drafted and captured, and who ultimately survived the war to reestablish her life here, four countries later, on the Cap d’Antibes. Her story is, at last, in print.

When my daughter Lolo tags along on a visit to elderly friends, we compare the lives of two 10-year-old girls living within the walls of our home, Bellevue – stories that are separated by a full 75 years. An iPad and a runaway apple remind us of today’s prosperity.

French Lessons sets sail on Part 2 of our photographic journey along the Côte d’Azur, this time leaving Antibes’ port in the direction of St-Tropez. Colourful histories, offbeat innovations and a secluded beach pepper our sun- and salt-soaked journey – as do James Bond and a small-time king.