The French Riviera has kept its popularity intact for 4,000 centuries, at least. There is evidence that mammoth hunters inhabited a site there near the harbor at Nice. Objects from the excavation are on display at the Terra Amata museum there.
Those early residents and today`s tourists have little in common, other than they both favored topless bathing.
The Riviera–or the more descriptive Cote d`Azur–has changed, of course, but the geography can`t have altered so much. The swelling hills, indented by sea and streams, still swoop down to the blue border of the Mediterranean.
Today, the landscape is tamed, decorated by roses, mimosa, violets and silvery olive trees. Its edges are trimmed with sand and pebbled beaches, palms and spectacular roads carved into its cliffs and skimming its coast, historic villages set into its hills.
In contrast to the primitive living conditions of the mammoth hunters, hotels both magnificent and modest, with facades like sculptured meringue, line the Cote d`Azur and its hill towns from Menton in the east near Italy`s border to Cassis, beyond St. Tropez.
Michelin Guide makes a distinction between the Cote d`Azur–from Menton to Cassis–and the French Riviera–from Menton to Nice–but the longer area
(Menton to Cassis) has become widely known as the French Riviera.
It includes the 370-acre independent principality of Monaco and its prime tourist draw, Monte Carlo and its casino.
For about the last 15 years, hoteliers representing mostly deluxe properties on the Riviera have been traveling to the United States, making the rounds of major cities and keeping travel agents and travelers aware of new construction and renovations.
All are top officials at their hotels–nine general managers, one managing director, one delegate manager and one owner.
At the Hotel Negresco in Nice, General Manager Michel Palmer watched as reservations for rooms and dinner came in from all over the United States. Travel agent Janice Rosenberg, who made arrangements for some of the tourists, said that interest in France is at a new high.
”Maybe it`s the strength of the dollar in France, but people are going there like crazy, and most people want to visit the Riviera, especially Monte Carlo and Cannes. And they want to go to the restaurant in Nice.”
”The restaurant” is the Chantecler in the Negresco, where 36-year-old Jacques Maximin has been chef since 1977, brought there by Palmer. French restaurant critics Gault and Millau discovered Maximin and in their 1982 guide gave him four red toques, signifying his original and inventive cooking and 19 points out of 20 for the quality of his cuisine. Recently, they raised the award to 19 1/2, the equal of the celebrated Michel Gerard and Freddy Girardet and a half-point more than Maximin`s former boss, Roger Verge.
So popular has the Chantecler become under Maximin that U.S. travelers sometimes write for reservations six months in advance.
The Negresco itself, with its rounded pink and green cupola, has been a landmark in Nice since 1912, but only in the last few decades has it taken on the resplendence that led the French government in 1974 to declare it a national monument.
Owner Jeanne Augier, a relentless pursuer of antique furniture for the guest rooms, is responsible for the 24-karat gold touches in the entrance and on balcony rails, the sitting room with a coffered ceiling from a 17th-Century castle, a fireplace from Bordeaux–same period–and a $20,000 tapestry.
In the hotel`s main rotunda, the Aubusson carpet, made for the hotel, is worth $3 million and the one-ton Baccarat chandelier, made for a Russian czar, costs $5,000 just to clean.
The Negresco was visited five or six times by King Umberto of Italy, who wanted to buy some of the paintings. ”They were members of his family, you know,” Palmer said.
The Martinez in Cannes has also undergone expensive renovations. In the last two years, $10 million went to refurbish the rooms, keeping the style of the 1930s, when the hotel was new.
The 400-room Martinez was owned by the French government, which for 25 years spent no money on it, said Richard Duvauchelle, general manager. Two years ago, it was sold to the Concorde hotel chain.
”The Martinez chairman wants to make it the top hotel on the Riviera. We have an outdoor octagonal swimming pool in front. We`ve renovated the restaurant, and now we are creating a new gourmet restaurant for 60. We have brought in Christian Willer, chef from the two-star Auberge des Templiers in Bezards (about 20 miles south of Paris).
”It will take time for our hotel to come back,” Duvauchelle said. ”We have only 15 percent U.S. visitors. We think we should have 30 percent.
”We have to do our homework to appeal to Americans. People think of the Riviera only at certain times of year–the Cannes film festival, the Grand Prix of Monte Carlo. They think of it as the in place for special events, and not as a vacation place.
”Basically, it`s a lack of awareness as to what can be done there. We have to make Americans more aware of our sports facilities–golfing, horseback riding, swimming. There`s even snow skiing about 1 1/2 hours away in Auron at Isola 2000. You can ski from November to May.”
Newer and a resounding success is Le Byblos in St. Tropez, built in 1968 to resemble a Provence village.
”We have 60 rooms,” said delegate manager Frederic Croisier, ”and we were so successful, we`re building 50 more. They`ll be ready by the end of March.”
Croisier described Le Byblos as ”a meeting place for the jet society. It`s the in place. We also have one of the best nightclubs on the Riviera
–Caves du Roy–holding about 900 persons.”
Not all the Riviera`s choice hotels are on the coast. Le Chateau du Domaine St. Martin is 11 or 12 miles from the sea in the hill town of Vence, where on a clear day you can see the Mediterranean.
Set above Provencal villages and hills planted with cypress, olive trees, oleanders, flowering orange trees, pines and flowers, the chateau was once a private summer home. The family furniture and ambiance have been kept. A swimming pool, tennis court and restaurant with one star from Michelin have been added.
The chateau has 16 rooms; an additional 10 villas and cottages are scattered among the 35 acres. And ruins of the headquarters of the medieval Knights Templar remain on the property–a nice fragment of history.
Dario dell`Antonia represents four hotels in Monte Carlo. The 46-room Monte Carlo Beach Hotel, always fully booked, is a favorite of Frank Sinatra. The landmark Hotel de Paris was opened in 1865 and is still popular. Dell`Antonia said he has had people from Los Angeles call just to book a table at the bar of the Grand restaurant there. One reason must be the hotel`s impressive wine stock–250,000 bottles stored in a cellar carved out of the underlying rock.
Dell`Antonia also represents the Belle Epoque Hermitage with 150 rooms and the 15-year-old Mirabeau with 100 rooms.
What does it cost to stay at these hotels? These are some sample tariffs. At the Hotel Negresco, high season rates for a double room are about $101 to $164 at current exchange rates (about 10 francs to the dollar). The Sofitel Splendid is $57 to $65, and its family-owned Gounod Hotel is only $35 a day
(price includes breakfast).
High season rate at the Hotel Martinez is about $95 to $180 for a double room. Le Byblos charges $106 to $154 and the Hotel de Paris $110 to $150.
For those who plan to travel to the Riviera, Palmer shared some of his favorite restaurants–besides the Chantecler, where dinner with wine can range from $30 to $43; a la carte, $47 a person.
He likes Auberge de la Madonna in Peillon Village, a 25-minute drive from Nice; family cooking, five-course meals for $11 in ”one of the nicest villages on the Riviera.”
He also likes Rotisserie S`Panerace, three miles from Nice–and the nouvelle cuisine at Le Massoury, between Villefranche and Beaulieu.
The hoteliers who live on the Riviera feel their home territory is a privileged place to be shared.
Michel Palmer put it this way: ”I`ve been there (in Nice) for 10 years. Every morning when I get up and I see the sunrise, I say, `I`m so lucky to see this shore.` And I am there all year around. But mainly at this time of year it is very clear. Last year we saw Corsica about 35 times–it`s about 45 nautical miles out and still you can see it.”
If Pan Am is fully operational by April 28, it will start daily nonstop service between New York and Nice, leaving New York at 5:25 p.m. and arriving in Nice at 7 a.m.
More information: French Government Tourist Office, 610 5th Ave., New York, N.Y. 10020.
