2nd- 7th JUNE 2023
CHATEAU DE LA NAPOULE
The Château de la Napoule is a restored French castle and it is here that we will call home for a week. The C14 fortified chateau was in ruins when the American sculptor, Henry Clews Jr and his wife Marie Clews - a landscape architect - rebuilt it in the early twentieth century.
The Chateau had been used as a glass factory until 1789. The Clews purchased in 1918 and spent the next 17 years transforming and restoring this ruin into a magical environment suited to their eccentric artistic taste.
The Chateau is home to La Napoule Art Foundation and provides residency opportunities for accomplished and emerging artists from around the world. It’s the perfect space for creative minds in any medium. We are very fortunate that we have been able to reserve it in early June for our private workshop there.
The Château compound, which includes the adjacent Villa Marguerite and six acres of historic gardens, offers indoor and outdoor studios, as well as lecture, performance, and instructional spaces. It also provides lodging, common areas, and food preparation for our convenience.
WE WILL HAVE FULL ACCESS TO THE CHATEAU, THE GARDENS AND THE MUSEUM.
CREATIVE HISTORY
The Château de La Napoule is the perfect retreat for artists of all disciplines. We certainly will not be short of inspiration, both around the Chateau and heading out into the surrounding villages.
ST PAUL DE VENCE
THE CREATIVE HISTORY OF SAINT-PAUL DE VENCE CAN BE TRACED BACK A LONG WAY. MARC CHAGALL DECLARED THAT THE LIGHT WAS 'THE BEST THERE IS'
Chagall spent two decades finding inspiration in St Paul de Vence. He was described as poet with the wings of a painter.
"If I create with my heart almost all my intentions remain. If it is with the head – almost nothing. An artist must not fear to be himself, to express only himself. If he is absolutely and entirely sincere, what he says and does will be acceptable to others."
VENCE
A couple of miles away in the Medieval walled village of Vence is the Matisse chapel.
It is a beautiful, light-filled space, in which the white walls, floor and ceiling reflect the bright light of the Midi filtered through brightly coloured stained glass. The effect is expansive and beautiful.
Matisse spent four years on the project near the end of his life, when he was in his late 70s. He collaborated with two Dominican friars and some nuns.
The National Picasso Museum.
The name of Vallauris is unquestionably associated with both ceramics and Picasso. He lived there from 1948, and chose the Roman chapel of Vallauris Priory as the location for this monumental wall composition (below left).
He settled there for several years - it was a time of intensive productivity that resulted in a series of drawings and engravings, and especially allowed him to develop his ceramic and sculptural work
The Musée National Fernand Léger is in nearby Biot. This museum explores his interests which ranged from cubism to architecture, society and cinema, and whose bold use of colour and subject matter has often credited him as being one of the forerunners of pop art.
ART AND CREATIVITY ARE CLEARLY SEEPING OUT OF EVERY HIDDEN NOOK IN THIS DELIGHTFUL CORNER OF FRANCE
ANTIBES
Antibes is just one of many delightfully pretty French towns that is close by.
The old town is one of those fascinating places where at every turn, the past informs the present. We will take time to wander through its alleys, observe the hidden details on the facades and doors, perhaps enjoy a drink in a sun-soaked pavement café....
A charming location sheltered behind solid stone walls, yet turn a corner and you are confronted with the Mediterranean Ocean - a contrast which only seems to make the sparkling white stones even brighter.
GRASSE
The exceptionally pretty French town of Grasse, is also close by and is possibly the sweetest smelling village in the whole of France.
Unofficially regarded as the perfume capital of the world and the birthplace of many a fragrance, Grasse offers an opportunity for visitors to challenge and develop one of the most under-rated of our senses and to, quite literally, wake up and smell the roses.
ROSE HARVEST - end of May to early June!!
It is pure serendipity that our tour coincides with the Grasse rose harvest. We will visit one of the oldest perfume houses in France where we will be able to photograph the process and mix our own scent. For five weeks between May and early June dozens of local harvesters move up and down the rows of bushes, carefully harvesting the delicate pink blooms.
LA COLUMBE D'OR
Our tour is full board. We will make a decision on where to eat a bit closer to the time of departure. However one restaurant is already on our list. La Columbe D'or.
In 1920 local farmer Paul Roux opened a café-bar in the tiny village of Saint Paul de Vence and later added three rooms above. During WWII, painters and the literati sought refuge on the Riviera. Many rocked up at La Colombe d’Or where they paid for their accommodation with paintings. This work formed the beginning of what is today an extraordinary collection of works by iconic masters like Matisse, Picasso, Léger, Braque and Chagall.
The unassuming way that these masterpieces can be seen hanging around the property is nothing short of extraordinary
COAST TO COAST
It's probably fair to say that we are not travelling to the Cote d'Azur to strut and be seen amidst the glamour of Monte Carlo or St Tropez. But that is not to dismiss the undoubted charms of the Mediterranean altogether.
There are many attractive and less well known locations full of appeal. The colourful buildings of Menton has all the beauty of the better-known coastal villages, but a fraction of the crowds.
A stone's throw from Nice, Villefranche-sur-Mer is a delightfully sleepy fishing village. Artist Jean Cocteau called it “a source of myth and inspiration” and the Rolling Stones recorded their Exile on Mainstreet album here. Also a popular filming location, Villefranche-sur-Mer has featured in everything from Alfred Hitchcock’s To Catch a Thief to Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
îLe Saint Marguerite
Île Saint Marguerite is the biggest of the Lérins Islands, which are a group of islands just half a mile off the coast of Cannes. The uninhabited island boasts 150 hectares of eucalyptus forest and Aleppo pine trees, and is lined with a seabed of remarkable clarity.
CHATEAU DE LA NAPOULE
We hope you are as excited as we are about this trip.
IT will be advertised on FYV ahead of it going on our website. Subscribers will have the first chance to book a space And will benefit from a 5% discount on the price listed on the website.
Perhaps we should also mention that we are both committed to doing fewer tours in the coming years. We both need time to spend on our own creative ideas as well as concentrating on FYV. Therefore we will only be listing three or four tours each year. Two extended tours and two closer to home.
