Famous Residents in Nice

Admirer of Monet, mentor of Matisse, confidante of Van Gogh, the career of neo-impressionist painter Paul Signac was heavily influenced by two things: his friendship with George Seurat, and the famed light of the French Riviera.

Katherine Mansfield’s life was both terribly short and terribly complicated, with tumultuous love affairs with both men and women. However, her short but intense love affair with the South of France would last until her death from tuberculosis at just 34 years old.

Jules Verne, adventure novelist and the ‘father of science fiction’, found writing inspiration surrounded by the pine trees and villas of Cap d’Antibes, that splendid headland with its crystal clear coves, pine trees and sweeping view of the Bay of the Angels across to the snow-capped Alps.

Bono, front man of U2 is a common sight on the French Riviera. Everyone who lives here seems to have seen him at some point- whether partying in a fashionable beach clubs in Saint Tropez, having a quiet drink in a bar in a bar in Antibes, or strolling along the beach of Eze-sur-Mer, the village where he has his mansion. He’s certainly not hard to spot, with those trademark clear glasses.

Graham Greene, one of the greatest voices of literature of the 20th century, lived in a humble one-bedroom apartment in Antibes for 24 years.

King Leopold II of Belgium is another person who was quick to see the astonishing virtues of the Coted’Azur- much like his English cousin Queen Victoria.

Aldous Huxley lived on the French Riviera for seven years, during which time he wrote the dystopian novel Brave New World that would entrench him as one of the greatest 20th century writers and intellectuals. He would also be part of an alleged plot to steal DH Lawrence’s ashes and scatter them to the desert winds, a story so wonderful that it should have really appeared in a novel.

The famous novelist Somerset Maugham left England to find a place in the Mediterranean sun among the colony of artists, royals and celebrities living on the glamorous Cote d’Azur.

For most of us the idea of swimming under a vast sheet of ice in Antarctica or descending into the ocean’s depths without oxygen fills us with dread. Not so Aurore Asso, the French national free dive champion from Nice, presently ranked second in the world and holder of several world records.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, one of the most famous couples in the world before their break-up, owned a 35 bedroom chateau-with moat-on a 1000 acre estate called Miraval, near Aix en Provence.

F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote the famous novel The Great Gatsby while living on the French Riviera, and when the film version premiered to a red carpet audience at the Cannes Film Festival in 2013, the story had in some ways come back to its spiritual home.