Surprise! I thought "Chanel's Riviera" would be a dishy romp through the crazy lives of entitled aristos and bohemian writers and artists playing and living along the Riviera from 1930-1950. Coco Chanel, a creative genius and eagle-eyed businesswoman, catered to this crowd and counted them as friends. She had opened a ready-to-wear boutique in Biarritz in 1915 and built, "La Pausa", the only home she ever owned, in Roquebrune in 1929. While in Paris Chanel always lived in apartments and at the Hotel Ritz.
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| Chanel's "getaway", La Pausa |
"Chanel's Riviera" is so much more. I've never been much of a Chanel fan. Aside from being a revolutionary designer, she became a difficult and seemingly bitter old woman. Don't expect a full-on immersion into Chanel here. She comes off better than I expected and may even have tried to arrange peace talks between the Allies and Germany!
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| Serious fun at La Pausa (Chanel on right) |
"Miss Dior", another Stylish Read, looks into the life of Christian Dior's sister Catherine, her time in the French resistance and imprisonment in a German concentration camp. "Chanel's Riviera" delves deeper with de Courcy's well-researched study of France during WWII. This is a subject that has been neglected, certainly by the French, possibly with good reason. There is no easy distinction between being a collaborator and doing what it takes to survive. France has struggled with that and is only now coming to terms with it.
I can see how "Chanel's Riviera" leads the way to further reading about many of these interesting characters— the long-forgotten like socialite Maxine Elliott and the ever-popular such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. What remains foremost, however, is history that may be fading over time but should never be forgotten.
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