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It’s not surprising that Catherine Deneuve, the cool and immaculate beauty, was a regular visitor to Mougins. This little medieval village, about four miles from Cannes, is lovely in a manner that can only be described as tasteful and immaculate. Ancient houses, winding around narrow, pedestrian lanes, have been carefully and precisely restored. Unlike the wild tumbles of blooms that pour out of cachepots and window boxes elsewhere, Mougins is marked by its lush but careful floral displays, its manicured hedges. Christian Dior lived and worked here at the height of his fame and you can almost sense the scent of Miss Dior perfume along Mougins’ well-tended lanes. This is the face of the Middle Ages, with its makeup intact.
Known today for its artists, its fabulous restaurants and its wonderful Automobile Museum, it makes a very pleasant day out if you are visiting Cannes. Alternatively, have a quiet stay in Mougins, dipping in and out of the urbanity of Cannes, 15 minutes away.
Before it became so dainty, Mougins was the favorite haunt of some of the wild men of 20th-century art. In the 1920s, surrealist painter Francis Picabia settled there. His friends followed – Fernand Leger, Man Ray, filmmaker René Clair, Isadora Duncan, everybody’s friend Jean Cocteau and Picasso. According to stories, a young Picasso painted murals and the walls of his hotel room in the 1930s. The disgruntled owner made him whitewash over them. Picasso returned, nevertheless, to spend the last 15 years of his life here.
The Museum of Photography (Porte Sarrazine, Mougins Village, ☎ 33 04 93 75 85 67, fax 33 04 93 90 15 15; open Wednesday to Saturday 10 am to noon and 2 to 6 pm, Sunday 2 to 6 pm, summers until 8 pm) is a tribute to the town’smost famous artist resident, with photo portraits of Picasso by his greatest photographer contemporaries.
Picasso lived next door to Notre Dame de Vie, a 12th-century chapel set on a particularly striking avenue of tall, straight cypress trees at a site once sacred to the goddess Diana. In a poignant historical footnote, the chapel was once considered a “sanctuary of respite” connected with stillborn babies. Bereaved parents would bring their dead child to the church, sometimes traveling great distances. During the Mass, the baby was considered to be “alive” long enough to be baptised.
Modern Mougins is still an artists’ colony with dozens of studios and galleries tucked in among the lanes and stone cottages. Le Lavoir, near the main entrance to the village, is a free showcase for young talent.
About a mile outside of the village is the Musée de L’Automobiliste (Aire des Bréguières, 06250 Mougins, ☎ 33 04 93 69 27 80, fax 33 04 93 46 01 36, musauto@club-internet.fr, www.musauto.fr, open 10 am to 6 pm, October to March, and to 7 pm, April to September). This is an absolute must for anyone who’s ever fantasized taking the wheel of a classic Bugatti, a Hispano Suiza, a Rolls Royce Phantom I or Silver Wraith, a Delaunay-Belleville, or any number of classic, 20th-century racing cars. The museum, in a dramatic modern building, has an enormous collection. A few cars can be rented (with a professional driver) for weddings and other grand entrances.
Although the village is tiny, the municipality of Mougins actually covers an area larger than Cannes. Town fathers have resisted urbanization with strict limits on development. As a result, the village is surrounded by a sea of green. There are gentle walks along marked botanical trails in the Valmasque Forest Park. L’Etang de Fontmerle, on the edge of Valmasque, supports an unusual variety of giant Asian lotus, unique in Europe.
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