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Great Continental Railway Journeys S01E01 London to Monte Carlo
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00:04I'm embarking on a new railway adventure that would take me across the heart of Europe.
00:12I'll be using this, my Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guide, dated 1913,
00:20which opened up an exotic world of foreign travel for the British tourist.
00:26It told travellers where to go, what to see, and how to navigate the thousands of miles of tracks crisscrossing
00:35the continent.
00:36Now, a century later, I'm using my copy to reveal an era of great optimism and energy,
00:44where technology, industry, science and the arts were flourishing.
00:49I want to rediscover that lost Europe that in 1913 couldn't know that its way of life
00:58would shortly be swept aside by the advent of war.
01:18Steered by my 1913 railway guide, I'm journeying through a prosperous pre-war Europe of emperors and kings,
01:27Homp and Elegant, a continent whose industrialists, factories and mines had created wealth,
01:35whose scientists and engineers were discovering and building the marvellous,
01:41and whose artists were challenging old ways, whilst intellectuals plotted revolution.
01:54On this leg, I'm following the most popular route of the Edwardian traveller through France,
02:00enjoying the final days of La Belle Epoque,
02:04the country's beautiful age of peace and economic and artistic triumph.
02:12I'm standing where Claude Monet stood a century and a quarter ago,
02:16and I've never felt more inadequate in my life.
02:20I'll taste the tipple that fuelled the bohemian nightlife of Paris.
02:26I can see how in this place of hellish activity,
02:29this might have helped to take you to heaven.
02:33Live the Edwardian high life.
02:35Oh, to have been an Englishman a hundred years ago.
02:40And like so many tourists before me,
02:43I'll have a flutter at the gaming tables of Monte Carlo.
02:48I'm not the first British traveller to lose his colourful shirt on the roulette table.
03:05My journey begins on the Eurostar to Paris,
03:09which in 1913, as now, was a capital city oozing sophistication.
03:16I'll then head south to the Mediterranean town of La Ciutat,
03:21home to a famous filmmaking duo,
03:24before continuing eastwards along the glamorous Coupe d'Azur,
03:28visiting some of 1913's best-loved tourist destinations,
03:33before ending my journey in that den of excess Monte Carlo.
03:44Of course, in 1913, the British tourists bound for the continent
03:49had to cross the waters and were spoilt for choice.
03:53My Bradshaw says,
03:55For the Dover route, London is left from Charing Cross or Victoria.
03:59The service is four times a day.
04:02For the Folkestone route, London is left from Charing Cross.
04:06By any route, it was the start of the Britain's continental adventure.
04:32I'm bound for Paris.
04:36And to learn just how popular foreign travel was for Edwardians,
04:40As I enter France, I'm meeting author Andrew Martin.
04:49By 1913, what kind of numbers of British people were travelling to Paris, for example?
04:57Well, a revolution had occurred between about 1840 and 1913.
05:01In 1840, you had about...
05:04estimated about 150,000 going abroad.
05:07By 1913, perhaps as many as 2 million.
05:11Really?
05:12I'm quite surprised by those numbers,
05:14but I suppose there was still a sense of adventure about travelling to the continent.
05:18There was a sense of adventure.
05:20You would have marvelled at the strange coal smell coming off the locomotives,
05:26because it was a different type of coal.
05:28The French locomotives of the Nord Company looked odd to British eyes,
05:33with all their fixtures and fittings seemed to be on the outside.
05:36They were a rather drab brown colour, which in itself was interesting.
05:41There was no platform on the French stations.
05:43You just stepped up into the carriage, which in itself was quite exciting.
05:48But then again, it was becoming much more affordable, foreign travel.
05:53You could have a third-class return to Paris in 1913 for about £2.
05:59£150 in today's money.
06:01So a week's wages for a fairly poorly paid working man, so it was quite doable.
06:07Nowadays, when we travel by the Eurostyle, we go under the channel,
06:12we miss out the stages of the journey.
06:15Tell me about the stages of that traditional journey.
06:19Well, on the boat train, it was very definitely a tripartite journey.
06:24You had a train, and then a boat, and then a train again.
06:26And the nautical aspect of it is what we miss today.
06:30You would have been on a small boat.
06:32You would have had a good chance of being sick.
06:35You would have boarded it, if you were at Dover, from Admiralty Pier,
06:40which was just a stone pier sticking out into the sea.
06:42The train went along it, and the paddle steamer came alongside.
06:46And you would have not only got blown about an Admiralty Pier,
06:50you may well have got soaked as well.
06:52So, with the Channel Tunnel, we really miss out, don't we?
06:55We miss out on being soaked and on throwing up.
06:59Yes, it's terrible, really, isn't it?
07:24A hundred years ago, the traveller who'd used the route through Calais
07:29would have arrived at the Gardu-Nord.
07:33And a century later, I'm doing just the same.
07:45Au revoir, merci.
07:531913 visitors to Paris happily endured the travails of their three-stage journey
07:59for a simple reason.
08:03They came to enjoy the most modern, beautiful and cultured city,
08:08not only in Europe, but arguably in the world.
08:13The wonderful thing about arriving by train
08:16is it delivers you to the heart of the city.
08:19And even here in the station, you see signs that this is Paris.
08:23Something about the colour of the stone and the green-painted ironwork.
08:27And outside the station, I feel the bars and the cafes
08:32and the bistros and the brasseries are beckoning me.
08:39After four decades without war,
08:421913 Paris was characterised by confidence, prosperity and joie de vivre.
08:51Dominating its skyline, the Eiffel Tower
08:54was a symbol of French engineering and economic success.
09:01Over the previous 60 years,
09:03the city centre had been expensively beautified
09:06with grand boulevard and imposing public buildings,
09:10which no doubt impressed the Edwardian tourists.
09:15But the gentrification of Paris,
09:18begun by city architect Georges Haussmann,
09:21had come at a price.
09:24Between 1851 and 1870,
09:28France was ruled by an emperor, Napoleon III.
09:31He employed Baron Haussmann to rebuild Paris.
09:35He created miles of new avenues and tremendous vistas.
09:40In the process, he demolished thousands of houses
09:44and displaced a much greater number of people.
09:48It's the sort of great project
09:49that could never have been done in Britain,
09:52where we think of the state
09:54as being the servant of the citizen,
09:57rather than the citizen being at the disposal of the state.
10:11Constitutional issues aside,
10:13there's no doubt that early 20th century Paris
10:16stood for beauty, elegance and fun.
10:22It was the centre of Europe's cafe society
10:25and a magnet for a burgeoning, often risqué culture
10:30of arts and entertainment.
10:36But three years before my 1913 guidebook was written,
10:41a natural disaster struck this vibrant capital.
10:51My branch rules tells me that in January 1910,
10:56widespread distress and damage were caused
10:59by the unprecedented swelling of the River Seine,
11:03the water rising nearly to the keystones
11:06of the arches of the bridges.
11:09The keys were entirely submerged
11:11and the flood covered the adjoining streets.
11:14It was estimated that the property loss
11:17reached a total of £40 million.
11:20I had no idea that the beautiful Seine
11:24could be capable of such violence.
11:27And I wonder whether Paris is safe today.
11:39It's hard to imagine such scenes of destruction.
11:42And I'm keen to learn more about this largely forgotten episode
11:47in Parisian history.
11:52Flavie, hello.
11:54Flavie Sauve works for Paris Flood Protection.
11:59What was the cause of the flood of 1910?
12:02So in autumn, for four months, we had a huge rainfall.
12:08It was a nightmare.
12:10And you know that in Paris, it was a huge building area at this time.
12:16We had new sewers and new metro tunnels.
12:21Because at this period, we had already four lines of metro in Paris.
12:27So the water spread into the tunnels
12:31and the sand and its tributaries overflowed the banks.
12:35Yes.
12:36So actually, the very modernity of Paris,
12:39with its sures, with its metro tunnels,
12:42this then became a cause of danger.
12:44Yes, it was.
12:45It made the disaster worse.
12:54In deep midwinter, the river rose to almost nine meters.
13:00At some points, the banks overflowed for up to a mile.
13:09It must have been a very huge flood.
13:12Yeah, you can imagine that the flood was like just a disaster for Paris.
13:18Is Paris still in danger of flooding?
13:20Yes, it is.
13:22You know that we have one on 100 cents per year
13:26to get a flood like this one happening.
13:29It's one of those things, isn't it?
13:31You have a great city built on a beautiful river.
13:34But then it does pose some sort of danger.
13:37Yes, it is.
13:39Well, thank you so much.
13:40You're welcome.
14:13After a good night's sleep, I've woken with an appetite.
14:18For Edwardian Britons visiting for the first time,
14:22Parisian food must have taken some getting used to.
14:28No eggs and bacon here.
14:31This is the town of the Continental Breakfast.
14:35I'm going to start my day by taking up a Bradshaw recommendation.
14:40It will save time, be inexpensive,
14:43and give a better idea of the situation of the more notable buildings of interest
14:48to hire a car to drive around the heart of the city.
14:54Napoleon used to say that an army marches on its stomach.
15:06My 1913 Bradshaw recommends hiring a taxi because Paris was awash with them.
15:13In 1906, there were 1,000 cabs in Paris compared to just 100 in London.
15:22To correct that imbalance, the General Cab Company of London placed a massive order
15:28for 500 vehicles built in France by Renault.
15:34With around 600 manufacturers compared to just 50 in Edwardian Britain,
15:40when it came to making cars, France was streets ahead.
15:45Motoring historian Pierre-Jean de Fausté should know why.
15:50Pierre-Grand, hello, how lovely to see you.
15:57Beautiful car.
16:01This car is le zebra.
16:04Zebra, the animal.
16:06And French, of course.
16:07Of French, yes.
16:08Built in 1910.
16:11Have you any idea what a car like this might have cost
16:13in 1910?
16:15Who could afford it?
16:16This car has been made to be a low-cost car,
16:21an economic car for people.
16:23And the price was 3,000 francs at the time.
16:28And 3,000 francs was a year's salary
16:33for an employee at Le Zebra factory.
16:36Why do you think the French were so advanced in car manufacture
16:39and the British so backward?
16:41Well, I think the English were very involved in steam
16:45for a long time.
16:46Yeah, we were very good at locomotives
16:48and maybe then we didn't realize
16:51that this was the new technology.
16:53Yes, you may realize that it was a new technology,
16:56but you have a law that oblige people
16:59to have someone walking in front of the car
17:02at 2 miles per hour maximum in town
17:04with a red flag just to say,
17:07hello, my car is coming.
17:10So that stopped the industry.
17:12At the beginning of the 21st century,
17:14we were worried about having too much
17:16of a health and safety culture.
17:18But apparently we had one in the 19th century too.
17:21Yeah, yeah, it's always a revolution.
17:23It would come back.
17:32First time.
17:33Well done.
17:37This is very, very cozy, Fjerdahl.
17:39Yeah, yeah, it's a nice car.
17:57When Baron Haussmann beautified the center of Paris,
18:00he did have a head start.
18:02Some of the city's best-known buildings,
18:05like Notre Dame,
18:07had been here for centuries.
18:10This building behind now
18:12has a very special meaning for me.
18:14It's your Assemblée Nationale, isn't it?
18:16Your Parliament building.
18:18I feel an affinity with it.
18:23And now we've crossed the River Seine.
18:25We felt that lovely cool breeze
18:27as we came across.
18:30And we come into the Place de la Concorde.
18:35So many people want guillotine here.
18:39Yeah, that's true.
18:40And now it's a Concorde.
18:43With another early 20th century mode of transport available,
18:47it's time for me to bid au revoir to Pierre-Jean
18:50and his vintage automobile.
19:00Given the state of traffic in Paris today,
19:03it's probably more sensible for me to proceed on the Metropolitan,
19:07which my Bradshaw's reminds me is the Underground Railway.
19:11And it lists the nine lines that had already been built by 1913
19:16and tells me that the fares are the same for any distance,
19:21which I think is probably still true today,
19:24although I'd be lucky to get a first-class fare for 25 centimes.
19:33It was a combination of traffic congestion
19:37and the imminent arrival of the Universal Exposition
19:41and the Olympic Games, both in 1900,
19:44which prompted the building of the Metro.
19:49Work started in 1898,
19:5335 years later than London's Underground.
19:58By contrast with London,
20:00the Paris Metro seems to be mainly quite close to the surface,
20:05built by the cut-and-cover method,
20:07digging a trench and then filling it in.
20:10And that means that you get these tall trains,
20:13whereas in London, of course,
20:15we have lots that were built very deep in round tubes
20:18and you have to stoop all the way.
20:23I'm arriving north of the city centre
20:25at our best station in Montmartre.
20:29In 1913, as now,
20:32it's where Paris writes its prose,
20:34paints its pictures
20:35and parties hard.
20:40This beautiful Metro station
20:43was built around the turn of the 20th century
20:46in Art Nouveau style,
20:48whose curves draw their inspiration from nature.
20:52This is an expression in public architecture
20:55of a broad cultural and artistic movement.
20:59After World War I,
21:00people would look back on this period
21:02with understandable nostalgia
21:04and would describe it as
21:06La Belle Epoque,
21:08the beautiful era.
21:14Situated in the 18th arrondissement,
21:18Montmartre's most notable landmark,
21:20the Basilica du Sacré-Cœur,
21:23completed just a year before my 1913 guidebook,
21:27sits atop the district's steep 130-metre-high hill.
21:33The area was populated by bohemian types
21:36who'd been displaced by Ousmane's revamp of Paris.
21:40Writers and artists followed,
21:43and as a busy nightlife developed,
21:46outwent the stifling morals of the 19th century
21:49to be replaced with the risque cabarets
21:52and can-can girls
21:53of the Chat Noir and the Moulin Rouge.
21:57And even a hundred years on,
22:00it seems that the spirit of La Belle Epoque
22:03lingers here.
22:06Hello.
22:07You know, I came and joined you
22:08because, apart from being a beautiful lady,
22:12you're sitting here reading a book,
22:14you're reading Émile Zola,
22:16so you're in the tradition of La Belle Epoque.
22:21Exactly.
22:22That's where I get inspired by it.
22:25These are your photographs?
22:27They are actually, indeed.
22:29Fascinating.
22:30Do you feel that there's a very strong
22:32artistic tradition here in Montmartre?
22:34There is, there is, indeed.
22:35The whole neighbourhood has a...
22:38an artistic atmosphere, actually,
22:41and lots of artists live here
22:44and expose their work in the street.
22:47So the tradition continues?
22:49It does.
22:51I notice they even paint the trucks.
22:54Yes.
22:56Bye-bye.
22:57Bye-bye.
22:58Bye-bye.
22:58Bye-bye.
23:16No tour of La Belle Epoque would be complete without a visit to the Hotel Fromentin,
23:21which, in 1913, was a cabaret,
23:25where they served a liquor affectionately known as the Green Fairy,
23:30which should help me with my fantasy of being in the Paris of Mondrian,
23:35Picasso, Pissarro, and Toulouse-Lautrec.
23:40Nadia.
23:41Oh, hello, Michael.
23:43Loved it to see you.
23:45Nadia Galuz works at the Hotel Fromentin.
23:49I've, uh, I've come for some absinthe, please.
23:53All right.
23:54Have you ever tried?
23:56No, I have not.
23:57I thought absinthe was, uh, was banned.
24:01It used to be, but it was at the beginning of the 20th century.
24:05It used to be really strong, and it used to make people really sick, especially the mind.
24:22Banned in 1915, absinthe fuelled the boozyness of La Belle Epoque.
24:27As high as 70% proof, the liquor was made from the bitter herb wormwood.
24:36Absinthe was blamed for an explosion in debauched behaviour
24:40that turned respectable establishments into dens of vice
24:44and upright citizens into drunks.
24:48Think the gin palaces of Britain with a twist of French.
24:55So, may we begin the ceremony of the absinthe?
24:58Yeah, of course.
24:59So, you just have to pour some of it here.
25:04And you use the special spoon.
25:07You put some sugar, and you just have to open this little tape.
25:14Oh, and now the drops.
25:15Yeah, the drops.
25:17And you just let the sugar dissolve.
25:20During that waiting time you took,
25:24it's about the art of conversation,
25:27it's a way to take the life slowly.
25:31I'm so pleased you told me that it was about the art of conversation.
25:34I'd always thought it was about getting drunk.
25:39Absinthe was a particular favourite in Bohemian Mon March.
25:43It's even rumoured that the artist Vincent van Gogh
25:47cut off his ear under the influence of the green fairy.
25:51I'd best have just a sip.
25:54So, the water has dripped through the sugar,
25:57and my absinthe has gone cloudy, it was quite clear before.
26:02And to taste it.
26:06Very sweet still, of course.
26:08Even more sweet.
26:09Mmm.
26:10Tastes good.
26:11I can see how, in this place of hellish activity,
26:15this might have helped to take you to heaven.
26:23I'll be leaving Paris for the Côte d'Azur early tomorrow morning,
26:28and just like the Edwardians whose journey I'm retracing,
26:32my train will leave from the Gare de Lyon.
26:36Before I depart, I want to find out about this grand terminus.
26:40It was rebuilt in 1900 with some very evocative features.
26:47This clock face is reminiscent of one I lived with for many years,
26:52Big Ben.
26:53And indeed, British travellers passing through here in 1913
26:57with their Bradshaw's guide
26:59would have been made to feel at home by it
27:02as they hastened through the Gare de Lyon
27:05on their way to their express trains
27:07and their overnight sleepers to the Riviera.
27:14In the station's restaurant,
27:17peckish passengers were greeted
27:19by a decadent salon befitting La Belle Époque
27:23and so well-regarded in France
27:26that French president Émile Loubet attended its opening.
27:33I'm meeting railway historian Clive Lamming
27:37at Le Trin Bleu.
27:40Lovely to meet you here in Le Trin Bleu.
27:43This is such a wonderful, beautifully decorated restaurant.
27:47It's more than a restaurant, you know.
27:50It's, I would say, a sort of a palace.
27:53It was made for the British people.
27:55They come during the night by the blue train,
27:58the Trin Bleu from Calais,
28:00and they need to feel at home.
28:03So we built for them a sort of little miniature Big Ben,
28:06a little tower,
28:07so they could feel at home.
28:09And here, everything is supposed to be,
28:12I would say, British.
28:13Just look at the furniture
28:15with the Chesterfields and sofas and so on, you see.
28:19So you are quite in a British place,
28:22but I can make you sure
28:24that the cooking is French and the wines too.
28:27Let's take a tour around
28:28because the whole place is decorated with frescoes.
28:34What, I think of the destinations
28:37that you can go to from here, is that correct?
28:39Yes, they were ordered by the French Railroad
28:42and they wanted that people wished to be there, you see.
28:46It's a place rather, I would say,
28:50built for dreaming than reality.
29:01In the 1870s,
29:03Belgian George Nagelmachers
29:05formed the International Sleeping Car Company.
29:08His trains mirrored the comfort
29:10of George Pullman's American overnight sleepers.
29:15Edwardian Britons loved the Calais-to-Can route,
29:18which departed Paris from this station,
29:21the Gare de Lyon.
29:24It's a wonderful view.
29:26It's a wonderful view.
29:27My Bradshaw's is 1913.
29:32Can you paint for me a picture of the station in 1913?
29:36In 1913, we would have seen engines,
29:40steam engine locomotives,
29:41which were called couvents, wind cutters.
29:44And behind, there were wooden carriages.
29:48And there were a lot of luggage vans,
29:51because in that time, people would travel heavily,
29:55with plenty of luggage,
29:56and ladies would have plenty of boxes,
29:59parcels, big hats.
30:01And all these luggage vans were full up.
30:03And it's famous because nobody was really wanting to travel,
30:08just for the pleasure.
30:10The British invented the travel for pleasure
30:12and the travel for learning.
30:14All the other people at the time
30:16thought it was wasting your time.
30:18Joyful prospect.
30:20Thank you so much.
30:21Enjoy your travel.
30:35Ready for the next leg of my journey,
30:38I'm returning to the Gare de Lyon
30:40and venturing south through central France.
30:44Had I been travelling in 1913 using my Bradshaw's guide,
30:49I would almost certainly have used the overnight sleeper
30:52to reach the French Riviera.
30:55Overnight sleepers are very romantic,
30:57although I don't find them very easy to sleep on.
31:00Anyway, today, we have the high-speed train,
31:04the Tring-Rombe Vitesse, the TGV,
31:07which covers the 450 miles from Paris to Marseille,
31:12incredibly, in three hours and five minutes.
31:16So I'm on the TGV.
31:38From Marseille, I'll make for La Ciotat,
31:41a small town with an impressive history.
31:45From there, via Toulon to the Côte d'Azur,
31:48to retrace a typical Edwardian trip,
31:51taking in the artistic heritage of Antibes,
31:54the British influence on Nice
31:56and, finally, the brazenness of Monte Carlo.
32:03When you travel at these speeds by train,
32:06you have something of the experience of travelling by plane
32:09that suddenly you wake up in a new landscape,
32:13new vegetation, new climate.
32:15We've swapped the cold light of Northern Europe
32:19for the azure blue of the Mediterranean.
32:30I'm changing trains at Marseille
32:33to do what so many Britons did in 1913,
32:36visit the Côte d'Azur.
32:43It's quite a short run now to my next stop,
32:46which is La Ciotat,
32:48which my Bradshaw tells me is beautifully situated on the coast
32:52and remarks that it was the Greek settlement of Kitharistes.
32:56But my interest is in more modern history,
32:59because La Ciotat is the place where the passions
33:03of railway enthusiasts and film buffs coincide.
33:29La Ciotat is something of a shrine
33:33to lovers of motion pictures,
33:35because this was the summer home of the Lumiere brothers,
33:40whose films of the village
33:42were some of the earliest movies ever made or shown,
33:47amongst which the scene of a train
33:50entering La Ciotat station
33:52has become an icon of early cinema.
34:00Encouraged by their father,
34:02a stills photography entrepreneur,
34:05Auguste and Louis Lumiere patented
34:07their portable cinematograph camera
34:10in February 1895.
34:12And the same year,
34:15the brothers were the first in the world
34:16to showcase their films to a paying audience.
34:21At the Eden Theatre in Costa La Ciotat,
34:25currently being restored under the watchful eye of Michel Cornille,
34:30crowds gathered for screenings
34:32of one of the Lumiere brothers' iconic films
34:35of a train pulling into the station.
34:38It's wonderful to be here.
34:39I feel the dust of history upon me.
34:42This is extraordinary.
34:43It would be really thrilling to me
34:45to be able to sit in the seats here.
34:47May we do that?
34:52Why did the Lumiere brothers decide to film a train
34:56entering the station at La Ciotat?
34:58Louis was playing with his cinematograph.
35:05His mother came from Marseille by train.
35:11He was on the platform
35:12and he filmed his mother coming from Marseille
35:17in La Ciotat.
35:19So, it's 1895
35:21and you and I have been invited here
35:25to the Eden Theatre
35:26to see the arrival of the train
35:30at La Ciotat Station.
35:32Do you think it was frightening for them?
35:34Yes, yes.
35:36Because, as you can imagine,
35:40you are on your seat
35:41and suddenly the train
35:46is coming out of the screen
35:50and you are afraid.
35:57The train was the first horror movie in the world.
36:06Well, it's been a great privilege
36:07to be allowed to enter this building site
36:10and be apparently the last visitor
36:13to the old theatre.
36:15But I know that when it's been restored,
36:18people will come here in their thousands
36:20because this is a very special place.
36:23You are very welcome to come again
36:26because Spielberg will open the new place.
36:32Spielberg.
36:33Spielberg with Michael.
36:35Another legend.
36:44This seaside town
36:46plays another significant part
36:49in early 20th century cultural development.
36:52Apart from its important role
36:54in the history of cinema,
36:56La Ciotat,
36:57a place I had never heard of until today,
37:00has another claim to fame
37:02as the cradle of pétanque.
37:07Hello.
37:09Can I play with you?
37:11Yes, of course.
37:13Of course.
37:16Is it for me?
37:22Oh.
37:24That's tough.
37:28The trick of this game
37:29is that at the end,
37:31your boule needs to be the nearest
37:33to the little target ball.
37:36But, of course,
37:37in between,
37:38you can hit other people's boule,
37:41knock them out of the way,
37:42and you can move the target ball as well.
37:48In 1907,
37:50La Ciotat resident Jules Lenoir,
37:53a rheumatic with limited mobility,
37:55is thought to have tried playing French bowls
37:58without raising a foot.
38:00Bravo.
38:01C'est bon, non?
38:01Oui, bon, bon.
38:04One good shot.
38:09Believed to be the highest participation form of bowls on the planet,
38:13the game's name,
38:15pétanque,
38:15derives from the Provençal words,
38:18pétanque,
38:19which translates as,
38:21feet together on the ground.
38:24And that's the end of me.
38:25With one flick,
38:27he just sent my ball into paradise.
38:33With some time before my next train,
38:36I'm going to explore La Ciotat's harbour.
38:51As my Bradshaw's guide told me,
38:54La Ciotat really is beautifully situated by the sea.
38:58The contrasting blues of sea and sky,
39:02the contrasting browns of terracotta and brick make it gorgeous.
39:07It just invites the painter's brush.
39:10I can't believe that I'd never heard of it,
39:13but it seems that I'm not alone.
39:15As far as I can tell,
39:16it's undiscovered by the British tourist.
39:26I'm bound now for Antibes on the Riviera.
39:31When the railways arrived on the Côte d'Azur,
39:35visitor numbers soared from 4,000 in 1860
39:39to 100,000 by 1900.
39:43But mechanized travel wasn't the only reason
39:47that they came in such droves.
39:50They were following the lead of their monarch
39:53and the advice of an influential book,
39:57Dr. Henry Bennett's Winter and Spring
40:00on the Shores of the Mediterranean.
40:04Boba Vukadinovich, a tourist guide, knows more.
40:10The first edition of the book
40:12definitely brought the Queen Victoria
40:15to the French Riviera.
40:18She spent altogether 332 days on the Riviera,
40:23which was half of her foreign traveling.
40:27Why did she come to the Riviera the first time?
40:30It was actually because of her son,
40:33Leopold, Duke of Albany,
40:35who was a hemophiliac.
40:39Queen Victoria was convinced of the beneficial effects
40:43of the temperate Mediterranean climate on Leopold,
40:47her hemophiliac son.
40:50But another British royal also frequented the Côte d'Azur
40:54for less wholesome reasons.
40:57Now, one of Queen Victoria's other sons,
41:00the Prince of Wales, who later became Edward VII,
41:02he was keen on the Riviera for different reasons
41:06from his mother's.
41:08You're absolutely right.
41:10He would never stay in the same town as Queen Victoria.
41:14Never. Why?
41:16Because actually she didn't approve of his, let's say, pleasure-seeking life.
41:22And definitely when he was on the Riviera,
41:25he was seeking for pleasure with young ladies,
41:28with elderly ladies later on.
41:31And he was keen on sport too.
41:34He played a lot of tennis.
41:36French liked him.
41:38Actually they adored him because he brought tennis to the Riviera.
41:42And later on, on his yacht, Britannia, he was participating in all the regattas on the French Riviera.
41:52My Bradshaw's guide, which is 1913, still refers to most of these places on the Riviera as being winter resorts.
42:01So when does it begin to change to summer?
42:04It's in the 20s.
42:06They started actually integrating the idea of being on the French Riviera in the summer
42:13and of hotels being open all the year round.
42:22The word scenic is a cliché often used to describe towns along the Côte d'Azur.
42:29Antibes is amongst the most beguiling.
42:33Its bays define beautiful shapes in a glistening sea,
42:37whose intense blueness responds to the skies and the changing angle of the sun.
42:44Even the least artistic person would love somehow to capture that shifting light.
43:18the wind behind the waves in front of Mars.
43:22It's cold left.
43:22port, which is today filled with billionaire's yachts, in a fine situation between Golfe
43:29Chouin and Baie des Anges. The rain has brought a cool evening, but the pink sky promises
43:37fine weather tomorrow.
43:55The Figaro, please.
43:57The Victorine.
43:58And the Souris, what?
44:001,50 euros.
44:27My Bradshaw says that the Capitontib is a beautiful peninsula, about two and a half miles long, clothed
44:36with a wonderfully rich vegetation, and having a wild, picturesque coast. As a winter resort,
44:44it's growing in favour. And that word picturesque is well chosen, because the intensity of the
44:51light and the vibrancy of the colour attracted to Antibes some of the greatest painters who'd
44:59ever lifted a paintbrush.
45:05Antibes was a magnet for Edwardian art lovers, although the great Impressionist painter Claude
45:11Monet first worked here as early as 1888. Inspired by beautiful surroundings, Impressionist
45:20artists usually painted in the open air rather than in a studio, depicting everyday life and
45:28using vibrant colours to recreate the effect of light and atmosphere. By 1913, many of the
45:36most influential painters of the early 20th century had followed Monet to Antibes, as in
45:43the 21st, has British artist Mitch Waite.
45:48Mitch, good to see you.
45:50And you?
45:51I suppose on a day like today, I don't really have to ask what it was about Antibes that
45:56attracted artists.
45:58No. Well, it's right there in front of us, isn't it? Clear blue skies, deep blue sea,
46:04crystal clear horizon.
46:06And my Bradshaw's refers also to the richness of the vegetation, so that will be a factor
46:11too?
46:12Absolutely. Just look around us here, we've got the sun coming through the yellow in this
46:19plant here, and that brings a highlight and a sparkle and a richness to colour, which artists
46:25like to use. And if you go back into this sort of vegetation, the colours go bluer and deeper,
46:34contrast with the highlights that we like to put in a picture. And then if you look further
46:39back at Cap d'Antibes there, the grey blues in all of the shadows of the trees give depth
46:47to the picture. Just what we want.
46:50That's an absolutely wonderful explanation. Shall we take a walk through the town?
46:53Absolutely.
46:57Which is the first of the famous artists then to come to Antibes?
47:01Well, that would have to be Claude Monet, famously painted from the Cap d'Antibes, several paintings.
47:08Came on the train, I imagine?
47:09I should think he did, yes.
47:12And with the railways, I suppose then the other artists followed in his train?
47:17Yes. Well, he inspired Paul Signac, who came and was very inspired by Monet's work.
47:25I'm interested in Paul Signac because he came here I think in 1913, the year of my Bradshaw's guide.
47:32Yes, in fact he did. That's right. He came from Saint-Tropez where he'd been painting for many years before
47:38that.
47:38And it was very important to them to paint in the open air?
47:42Absolutely, that's what they wanted. They were outside and they came to places like this for the beautiful light, of
47:47course.
47:47And they, in turn, inspired people like Signac, in fact, who developed into something called pointillism, painting very small brush
47:58strokes, almost mosaic-like, with bright, fresh, clean colours.
48:03And he, in turn, inspired people like Henri Matisse, who was part of the Fauvism movement, bright, strong colours, but
48:13bigger, bolder brush strokes.
48:15And again, inspired this beautiful light from this area.
48:19So really, you can read the history of art in the late 19th, early 20th century here in Antibes.
48:27It's all here in Antibes.
48:30Mitch wants to show me the shoreline that many Edwardian art connoisseurs would have visited to see where Monet painted
48:38his famous work on Antibes seen from La Salice.
48:44I see you have a group of artists here. Is it good to be part of a community of painters?
48:50Absolutely. We enjoy it a lot. Go out together painting, inspire each other, share a common interest.
48:57And here is Paul Rafty, one of my friends.
49:00Paul. Michael.
49:01Pleasure to meet you.
49:02Great pleasure to see you.
49:04Beautiful piece of work.
49:06Do you find yourself treading in giant's footsteps as you stand in this place here?
49:10Well, I think any artist does when there's such a plethora of fantastic art that's gone before, but that doesn't
49:16stop you doing it.
49:17Do you think there was anything special about the beginning of the 20th century? Do you feel really important changes
49:26were occurring then?
49:27Everything was changing. And I think that the nice thing about the Impressionists, for instance, is they depicted what was
49:34the reality from train stations to lamp fixtures and that I'm reluctant to do.
49:42There are people that I don't like cars, for instance, but I have to put them in. And it just
49:47seems maybe with a passage of time, it looks more bucolic to them. But they really were so many changes
49:53going on for them.
49:55You can't really compare a modern day car with a classic locomotive.
49:59No, but that might be your and my romanticism rather than me. To them, it might have been ugly, but
50:06they depicted it.
50:13Well, Michael, you've seen how the experts do it. And I thought you might like to have a go yourself.
50:20I haven't lifted a paintbrush since I was at school. All right, you better show me exactly what to do,
50:27please.
50:29What we're looking for on here, we've got a roughly rendered in sky and tree and sea.
50:35But what's really special about Antibes is the golden light on the town here.
50:42And that I've totally left off for the moment. So what you've got to do is you've got to keep
50:46your eye on the subject all the time.
50:48What the impressionists did was they painted reality as they saw it, brush stroke by brush stroke.
50:54It wasn't invented. So every time you put a brush stroke down, you're looking across there.
51:00And you see, you've got to know where to stop, exactly where the tower is.
51:04Then you look for the little bit of light that's coming on that building.
51:07It just goes slightly down diagonally like that. See if you can just continue and maybe put a few brush
51:14strokes of light coming down here.
51:20The light is on this side. Exactly that.
51:28That's perfect.
51:29I'm standing where Claude Monet stood a century and a quarter ago.
51:33I'm holding a paint brush for the first time in 40 years and I've never felt more inadequate in my
51:40life.
51:45Okay, Michael, I would like to congratulate you and now welcome you to our painting group.
51:52And you know, it's quite a tradition that we painters paint each other when we go out together.
51:58Oh my goodness, that's absolutely lovely.
52:01And you've got this shirt and of course you've got the towers of the Picasso Museum of Antilles.
52:09Thank you so much. Just wait until you see mine of you.
52:13Oh yes!
52:31On this journey I'd already discovered that at the turn of the 20th century the French had a lead in
52:38the manufacture of cars and a lead in cinema.
52:41Here in Antilles I've discovered how remarkable were the developments in French painting.
52:48France on the eve of the First World War was a country of extraordinary intellectual energy.
53:14But my next destination is a place to rest the brain and the body.
53:22The crowded beaches and elegant seafront confirm that Nice is a city built on tourism.
53:37Bradshaws is always helpful with directions.
53:40The principal railway station is on the north-west side of the town.
53:45All the streets running south from the railway lead through the town and eventually to the sea.
53:52And it's to the water that I'm bound to find the lasting legacy of those British people who flocked here
54:00over the centuries.
54:10The town was a winter destination of choice for grand touring early Victorians.
54:17And some who made Nice their home played a surprisingly important role in creating one of the town's best known
54:25landmarks.
54:26Built in the 19th century as perhaps the world's most elegant and fashionable seaside boulevard,
54:34the Promenade des Anglais has origins in the Anglican Church of Nice,
54:40where British residents and visitors worshipped.
54:47Kenneth Letts is Holy Trinity's rector.
54:50So what is the connection between the Anglican Church and this very fashionable promenade?
54:56Well, it's a big connection.
54:59This began as an act of solidarity with the unemployed.
55:03That was in the 1820s.
55:06And Father Lewis Way, who was the priest in charge of the parish at that time, said to his people,
55:15we need to do something to help the unemployed of the area in which we live.
55:20And he got a subscription going.
55:22And with that money, they employed the local Nicewa to build a path for the ladies to take a stroll
55:34along the seaside.
55:36That's extraordinary.
55:37It's one of the best known promenades probably in the world.
55:40And it began as a poverty relief project.
55:43I think you could put it that way, yes.
55:49I doubt whether many Edwardian visitors knew that the swankiest esplanade in Europe started as a dusty,
55:57two-metre-wide path funded by Anglicans.
56:01And I'd be amazed if today's tourists had the slightest idea.
56:08Hello.
56:09You speak English?
56:11Hello.
56:12Do you know the name of the...
56:16Promenade that you're walking on at the moment?
56:17Of course.
56:19Promenade des Anglais.
56:20Do you know particularly why it's called Des Anglais?
56:25There's a part that was built by the Reverend, and that's how it started.
56:31And I gave some work, but it's because we had the tour this morning, that's why we...
56:39Hello, ladies.
56:40Hello.
56:41Hello.
56:42Are you English?
56:43We are.
56:44And do you know that you're on the Promenade des Anglais?
56:47We did.
56:48Do you know why it's called the Promenade des Anglais?
56:50No.
56:51I only found out today.
56:53Okay.
56:53Apparently it's because the Anglican church here raised some money to do a project to give
57:00work to the unemployed people in the 1820s.
57:03What do you think of that?
57:04What do you think of that?
57:04That's a nice connection between our country and here, isn't it?
57:07Yeah, yeah.
57:08Absolutely.
57:08We all feel different carrying on in our Promenade now.
57:14Enjoy your holiday.
57:22I know that my hotel for the night is somewhere along the Promenade des Anglais.
57:28All I need now is to locate it.
57:37Aha!
57:38My Bradshaw's often has a recommendation or an advertisement for a hotel.
57:43On this occasion, it has a picture.
57:45And since the Negresco appears not to have changed in a century, I had no excuse for not
57:53being able to find it.
58:02Just months before my guidebook was published, Hotel Negresco, the most famous Belle Epoque
58:08building in Nice, opened for business.
58:14It was owned by Romanian Henry Negresco, who had left Bucharest as a teenager to seek his
58:22fortune and succeeded as a nice hotelier.
58:27Sadly, war was on the horizon.
58:29And when it came in 1914, Henry funded the running of his palatial hotel as a military hospital.
58:38In the post-war period, bookings didn't pick up, and Henry died in 1920 without seeing his
58:46beloved hotel returned to its former glory.
58:51In the 1950s, the Negresco's new golden age dawned.
58:57And three
58:57Wolf-chan Bumi
58:58In the absence of meeting with Emma
58:59in public built in Zhang
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