Edith Wharton's French Riviera

Nice, Cannes, Monte Carlo... scattered like jewels along the Côte d'Azur, these towns have come to symbolize sun-drenched luxury and decadence. When Edith Wharton settled into a magnificent old convent on the French Riviera at the end of the First World War, the Côte d'Azur was changing from a genteel winter resort dominated by European aristocrats, into a far racier place populated by a glamorous American jet set. Wharton's life, like many of those she describes in her famous novels, was emblematic of the conflict between the old world and newer, modern values. Coco Chanel, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Ali Khan, Somerset Maugham, Jean Cocteau, Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Matisse, Czar Nicolas II, Grace Kelly... stars from all over the world came to rub shoulders in palatial hotels, glamorous casinos, or in their extravagant homes. Richly illustrated with both contemporary and vintage photographs, Edith Wharton's French Riviera is an evocative portrait of this vanished world - the golden age of the French Riviera.