UN MELTING-POT (or "Mesclun" in the local language of Nice) - It's surprising to find on the Côte d'Azur such an extraordinary blend of styles and eras, the result of the comings and goings of travellers from all over the world. There were fads and fashions too, inspired by the most exotic places or introduced by a particularly fertile and fanciful mind. One after the other, sovereigns and aristocrats, rich winter residents, imposed their taste for the picturesque and extravagant: palaces and villas were intended to impress a cosmopolitan clientele, well-travelled and long accustomed to luxury. Moorish minarets appeared on the Coast, medieval castles, Orthodox churches with shiny domes, colonial villas, Gothic manors...Dreams built of stone, that even today exercise a certain fascination over our visitors.
THE HERITAGE OF THE 20th CENTURY - A creation of the "Belle Époque", the Côte d'Azur of the 20th century has become a widely renowned center for modern art. The greatest artists from all over the world met up here to pursue their work, far from metropolitan art centers and all their various pressures. Between 1918 and 1958 es pecially, the Côte d 'Azur was a highly fertile source of artistic production that left a Mediterranean mark on the history of modern art. From the "modernists" to the avant-garde and School of Nice, artists still continue today, in the steps of the most renowned creators, to produce masterpices for the third millennium. The great artists of impressionism and post-impressionism such as Renoir, Monet, Sisley and Signac, first arrived on the Cote d'Azur at the end of the 19 th century. since then, the region has continued to play host to the most renowned creators who, dazzled by the light, came in their turn to work in the sun and find inspiration in this little corner of paradise. It didn't take Soutine, Bonnard or Matisse very long to settle on the Cote d'Azur and build a lifework of exemplary achievements in their own individual styles. After the second world war, Picasso de Staël, Chagall, Dubuffet, Sutherland and Leger yielded in their turn to temptation, joining artists such as Picabia, Magnelli and Arp who had already elected domicile in the region, by simple taste or due to the pressure of external events.