ABSTRACT

Exclusive summer beach tourism Until the 1920s, the elite had shunned the Mediterranean in the summer months. This changed when celebrities such as the French fashion designer Coco Chanel and the American writer Scott Fitzgerald made sunbathing fashionable. Juan-les-Pins was the Riviera’s first summer resort, attracting a new moneyed clientele of writers, artists and entertainers who were quite different from the European aristocracy, whose fortunes had declined as a result of wars and revolutions. The region’s accessibility improved with the construction of a new coastal highway – the moyenne corniche – and the inauguration of the Train Bleu (the Calais-Mediterranean express) which provided luxury travel to the resorts. The coast’s mediocre beaches were also improved, sometimes by importing sand from elsewhere.