A Brief History of Cannes

The French didn’t discover what a gem of a winter resort they had in Cannes until about 50 years after British and then Russian aristocrats virtually invented the place.

Before 1834, Cannes was a small fishing port, with about 500 houses around the base of Mt. Chevalier – the area now known as la Suquet. That year, as was his usual habit, the British Lord Chancellor, Lord Henry Brougham, was on his way to Nice, still part of Italy and already a popular winter resort with English aristocrats. Because of a cholera epidemic in Provence, the governor of Nice had closed the border so Brougham and his daughter Eleanore were turned back. On their way to Grasse, they stopped for the night at an inn on what is today the Rue du Port in Cannes. Brougham was so taken with the little village of Canoïs that he stayed on, ultimately commissioning a splendid villa named after his daughter.

Two years later, the crême de la crême of London high society, fleeing Britain’s dull winter climate, followed Brougham to Cannes. By 1838, the port was under construction and the spectacular seafront, La Croisette, was underway. In the 19th century, where the British aristocracy went, Imperial Russians soon followed, setting up their grand houses in the 1840s. Ten years later, palace hotels were going up, Within a relatively short time, a poor fishing village had been transformed into a fashionable winter resort with vast mansions, gardens bursting with exotic blooms (the water was brought via a canal built by the British), grand avenues and promenades. And within three decades of Lord Brougham’s fortuitous visit, the population had grown from a few hundred to more than 4,000. Cannes had become the coast’s leading resort.

In the 1880s, French society finally arrived in numbers. Some say they were drawn there by the accounts of the town, painted by some of France’s 19th century literary lions. Prosper Mérimée, who wrote the story and then the libretto for Carmen, spent the end of his life in Cannes. In the 1880s, Guy de Maupassant cruised the bay and wrote enthusiastically of the experience.

The Belle Époque was well underway, at the turn of the 20th century, when some of Cannes’ most famous landmarks were being built. The Hotel Carlton was commissioned in 1910. Legend says that its familiar domes were inspired by the breasts of La Belle Otéro, a famous courtesan of the era. It is probably true. Cannes in those days had the faintly naughty whiff of a rich man’s playground about it. Several well-known courtesans entertained princes and captains of industry in its luxurious palace hotels and in the salons of its fine urban mansions.

During World War I many of the hotels were converted to hospitals and shelters for wounded soldiers and refugees. The Allies Peace Conference of 1921 was held at the Carlton.

Glamorous environments drew a glamorous crowd and it wasn’t long after the war that the rich and famous returned. During the Roaring Twenties, the first generation of real mass media darlings populated the growing resort. The Aga Khan of the day married a local girl who had been elected Miss France. There were Rothschilds and Citroëns (people – not cars!), artists like van Dongen and Domergue, politicians – young Winston Churchill came often – and royalty. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor became part of the social scene following his abdication as Edward VIII.