Once a stronghold of artists, Saint-Paul-de-Vence now welcomes “people” in the broadest sense of the term. From Kate Moss to Arielle Dombasle, without forgetting Marion Cotillard, many personalities have fallen under the spell of this absolutely charming medieval village. But then, how did this little corner of the Côte d’Azur become so famous? Gala.fr tells you everything.
A little corner of paradise nestled on the heights of the Côte d’Azur. In addition to offering a breathtaking panorama combining land and sea, the village of Saint-Paul-de-Vence is also rich in history. The influx of personalities in this medieval city is not new. If this place is known today beyond the borders, it is especially thanks to the famous artists who have stayed there since the middle of the 20th century.
After the Second World War, several famous painters, such as Marc Chagall or Henri Matisse, will settle there. But then, why did you decide to put their easel in this precise place in France? “Chagall said that here was the most beautiful light“, note our colleagues from RTL. Inspired by the beauty of the place, the Belarusian painter had a house built in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, where he lived until his death in 1985. artists…
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This famous couple who contributed to the fame of the village
In the 1950s, a famous couple provides significant influence in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Until now land of painters and sculptors, the village now seduces actors. It is there that the romance between Yves Montand and Simone Signoret is born, during a joint vacation, during the summer of 1949. When his gaze met that of the actor, the heroine of diabolical immediately fall in love. With her daughter Catherine Allégret, she decides to follow him out of love. Two years later, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret get married at the town hall of Saint-Paul-de-Vencein the presence of the mayor of course, and their witness Jacques Prévert, at the origin of their meeting. After this union, the actor does not go unnoticed in the town. Wishing to lead a quiet life, he took over Place De Gaulle where he plays pétanque games with his friends Lino Ventura and Georges Géret“they too are familiar with the village“, indicates the Tourist Office of Saint-Paul-de-Vence on its official website.
A ritual perpetuated by his son Valentin : “It happens to me yes, in summer, when it’s hot. With friends, we sit in the square and we play“, relates the young man to Paris Match in 2016. Since the disappearance of his father, it is now he who watches over the family home in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. “It’s the family home, it’s where I grew up and spent all my summers, where I have my first photos with my father. It’s a house full of memories“, he says with nostalgia. Very attached to this place, Valentin Montand try to come back every summer. The low, he still meets people who knew his father, as “the waiters at the Café de la Place or those who work at the Colombe d’Or“, he confides to our colleagues. No doubt, more than thirty years after his disappearance, the shadow of Yves Montand still hangs over Saint-Paul-de-Vence.
La Colombe d’Or, legendary address in Saint-Paul-de-Vence
Another must: the hotel-restaurant The Golden Dove. Like the village, the establishment, which seems to have retained its authenticity over timehas also seen many stars parade for decades. After the painterssuch as Pablo Picasso and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, actors, singers or even intellectuals flock there in turn. “Everyone met there. What’s quite funny is that Titine, the owner of La Colombe, she accepted who she wanted to accept. Even if you had the latest Rolls or the most beautiful diamond in the world, if she had decided that you didn’t have your table at La Colombe, you could do everything you could, you didn’t have a table!“, says Isabelle Maeght, granddaughter of Aimé and Marguerite Maeght and administrator of the Maeght Foundation, on the waves of RTL.
When they were passing through the Côte d’Azur, Yves Montand and Simone Signoret like to make a stopover there. If they attach so much importance to this place, it is because it is there, during a dinner in this restaurant, that their eyes meet for the first timeas recalled Nice morning. “It’s Montand who comes to see Prévert and Simone was there. Or the opposite, I don’t know. Anyway, that’s how it is, one of them was there with Prévert and the other came to see Prévert. And then there was a thunderbolt“, recalls François Roux, grandson of the founder of the inn, with our colleagues from RTL. In 1993, Arielle Dombasle and Bernard-Henri Lévy put their suitcases there while their wedding, also celebrated in the town. As related Paris Match in a report published at the time, the singer shines in a white dress “in crepe with gorgette, open back, created by Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel.” All enhanced by the magic of Saint-Paul-de-Vence: “I was inundated with flowers. And then there was the celestial vault, the sky, so present, the month of June, under the fig trees (…) It was lovely“, says the bride.
Arielle Dombasle stays there during the Cannes Film Festival
Accustomed to the Cannes Film Festival, Arielle Dombasle flees the hustle and bustle of the Croisette as soon as she can to come and retire in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, located about thirty kilometers away. In a report broadcast in the early 2000swe learn that the wife of Bernard-Henri Lévy “occupies a year suite“at the Dove d’Or. “I think it’s a place on the Côte d’Azur that has kept all the poetry of what was called the Riviera“, she believes, before adding: “We have an apartment here and we come here very often. It’s my second home.”
And according to the grandson of the founder of the hotel-restaurant, Arielle Dombasle is not the only famous client to settle in La Colombe d’Or during the Cannes madness. “There are a lot of people coming to eat. The, during the last Cannes Film Festival, we had Clooney, De Niro, Anne Hataway…“, remembers François Roux. If we are to believe the site French Riviera, can also meet Brad Pitt, Elton John and even Marion Cotillard during sunny days. According Le Figarothe mother of Marcel and Louise would indeed be there found refuge with Guillaume Canet. A few years earlier, it’s Mylène Farmer who stays therewith his team, to prepare his tour.
This remarkable passage of Kate Moss
In May 2019, Kate Moss went to this little paradise on the Côte d’Azur. Invited to the birthday of one of her friends, the ex of Johnny Depp obviously does not go unnoticed. The photographers present on the scene do not miss a crumb of his arrival in France. At each of his outings in the street, the flashes crackle. However, the star this is not his first stay in this village of artists now very popular with people. A few years earlier, she is photographed in a little black dress during a lunch with Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom… at the Colombe d’Or, as evidenced by clichés relayed by the DailyMail. A place that seems to make everyone agree!
Photo credits: Frederic Nebinger / Bestimage
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Arielle Dombasle, Marion Cotillard, Kate Moss… Why Saint-Paul-de-Vence is a popular place for stars – Gala