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| History:
The older and grander hotels of the Promenade
des Anglais were built at the turn of the century.
In most people's eyes, the grandest, with its Empire and Napoleon
decor, is the Negresco. Henri Negresco, a Roumanian immigrant,
built the building, which is now a national monument, in 1912.
Before he started the hotel, Henri Negresco was director of
the city casino's restaurant - we're talking guests who were
the richest people in the world, the Rockefellers and the Singers.
He wanted his hotel to be a hauts lieux as well, and had it designed to attract the very top of the upper crust. As bad luck would have it, World War I reared its ugly head, and the hotel became a hospital. Henri Negresco died shortly after the war, a ruined man. Once the Americans arrived during the roaring twenties business soon picked up. Especially once Gerald and Sara Murphy and their entourage of writers and celebrities had discovered the pleasures of summer on the French Riviera. There are many more pleasures to be discovered on and around Promenade des Anglais. On the Avenue des Baumettes, there is the Museum des Beaux-Arts Jules. And, in a little park on Rue de France just off the promenade, there is the Museum Massena named after a local boy who was made a Napoleonic general. Weary? Take a short walk back to the beach and enjoy the view across the bay to the Cap d'Antibes and the fortified Port Vauban, which was built to defend Antibes, and France, from the Nicois. |
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