It is a riveting story of butcher kings and widow queens, sex sirens and princesses, scheming billionaires and socialite visionaries, hard-drinking writers and eccentric artistsβall flocking to the Riviera to live lives full of decadence, intrigue, and debauchery under the Mediterranean sun. Let us take you for a journey down the French Riviera, stopping at the haunts of the celebrities, socialites, and royals who forever changed the French Riviera.
The gloriously pretty seaside town of Menton may well be lesser known than its Riviera neighbours, but it was at Menton that the French Riviera as we know it truly begun, when the widowed Queen Victoria came to stay in , thus opening the floodgates for royals and high society to follow. Railways were built, grand villas replaced stone farmhouses, and ornate carriages carrying dukes and princes passed slowly along high coast roads above the sparkling sea. She even got in trouble for trampling the flowerbeds of her friend Alice Rothschild.
Those shepherds must have been handsome indeed. Enter shipping magnate and superyacht owner Aristotle Onassis, who bought up control of the failing Monegasque bank and encouraged Prince Rainier III to marry an American actress to bring star power to shine on the Principality.
The more famous, the better. As for the scheming Onassis? He and the Prince came into conflict over the future of Monaco, and after the Prince wrested back control of the bank from Onassis, Onassis cruised away from Port Hercules on his yacht, Christina O : the superyacht that set the tone for all yachts that were to follow.
Yet he did transform the Cap into a place of stunning villas and exotic gardens, and his yacht Clementine was the first of so very many to anchor off this stunning emerald headland dropping away into the blue-green sea. Leopold turned the Cap into a wealthy playground, leading the Rothschilds who built the fabulous Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild and the great families of Europe to follow.
