Amazon.co.uk Review
Britons travelling through the region around Nice in the late 1700s named it the French Riviera. In 1887 the French poet Stéphen Liegeart, inspired by the Riviera's glorious blue sky and sea, named it La Côte d'Azur for the first time. Though it lost some of its glamour as the coastline was destroyed by a jungle of concrete buildings in last decades of this century, the images of grandeur--moonlight, glittering chandeliers, grand staircases-- endure. Writer Shirley Johnston and photographer Roberto Schezen have gone searching and found 20 examples of the remaining Grand Villas of the Riviera. Béatrice de Rothschild's lavish, individual Villa Ile-de-France, which was built in Italianate Renaissance Revival style and furnished with objets d'art and priceless antiques, is one. Another is academic Théodore Reinach's Greek Revival Villa Krylos, which was built with meticulous attention to historical details like mosaic floors, frescoes and panelled walls. Charles de Nailles, a patron of avant-garde artists like Man Ray and Lipchitz, created a modernist masterpiece that echoes the cubist and deco styles. This is more than just a coffee-table book, though the photography is magnificent. It's a well-researched, historical record of the lives and homes of some of the world's most famous people. --
Brian Reinker
Product Description
During the end of the 19th century and the first decades of this century, the French Riviera became the most desirable of getaways, first for European aristocracy and then for the young American "smart set". Ever since, the Riviera has endured as the world's premier international resort. Against the dramatic background of plunging mountains, rocky harbours and sweeping bays, the glitterati of the Cote d'Azur built exquisite villas in a panoply of styles - medieval, classical revival, Louis XV and international style. This book features 20 of the French Riviera's most splendid villas (with interiors, gardens, pools and grounds), including those owned or occupied by Empress Eugenie of France, King Leopold II of Belgium, Lady Kenmare, Beatrice de Rothschild, the De Noailles, Daisy Fellows and W. Somerset Maugham. The authors have been granted unprecedented access to these extraordinary houses, and capture their magical exteriors and interiors; enchanting gardens in beautiful hillside settings; gilded furniture with fine needlepoint upholstery; opulent tapestries; mosaic floors and Aubusson carpets.
