|  uan
Les Pins, known as the coolest bathing resort on
the Côte d'Azur, Juan-les-Pins is famous for its
connections with the world of jazz (several streets
and squares have been named after famous jazz musicians)
and its lively nightlife. The town is prolonged by the
Pinède (pine-grove), long sandy beaches and the
Promenade du Soleil, almost as popular as the Croisette.
Every year, many de-luxe hotels and residences near
the Palais des Congrès play host to congresses
and international events.
- 15
km from the Nice/Cote d'Azur
international airport, the second largest
in France
- 8
km from Sophia Antipolis , Europe's largest
technopole
- 7
km from Cannes, with
its famous festivals
- 22
km from Nice, the capital
of the Cote d'Azur
and the fifth largest city in France
- 50
km from the Principality
of Monaco
- 60
km from Italy
- 60
km from St Tropez
-
1 hour by plane from Paris (hourly arrivals and
departures)
- a
few hours by ferry from Corsica
Despite
standing on the shores of the Mediterranean, Juan Les
Pins is within a short distance of the Alps, for delightful
excursions in summer as well as winter sports.
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The
'fifties and 'sixties confirmed the popularity of Juan-les-Pins,
where the Americans added the jazzy rhythms of their
jam-sessions to the development of a bathing center,
soon to become the smartest resort on the Riviera. It
was in 1960 that the Juan-les-Pins Jazz Festival
was officially launched, a town now twinned with the
French Quarter of New Orleans.
Fate
has a strange way of working. The birth of Juan-les-Pins
actually came about when a well-known restaurateur,
one Edouard Baudoin, who ran a very successful restaurant
in Nice, saw a film that
depicted a beach-party scene in Miami. He had already
assessed the potential of Juan-les-Pins, at that
time just a collection of pine trees and lots of sand,
and purchased a very delapidated and almost bankrupt
casino there. |
He rebuilt it and on opening night staged a cabaret
starring the Dolly Sisters. It was also around about
this time, Frank Jay Gould, son of one of America's
most notorious criminals, who had become an irascible
inebriate (he drank as well), saw - like Baudoin - the
possibilities that Juan-les-Pins presented. Being
quite wealthy, he persuaded the French army to build
the roads and install a sewerage system that would put
this little village on the map. And so, slowly but surely,
Juan-les-Pins started to grow. In 1930, the hotelier
Boma Est¬ne commissioned the building of what was to
become one of the resort's most attractive hotels: the
Belles Rives.
One, however,the famous Coco Chanel, was refused entrance
by the doorman because she was wearing beach pyjamas
- the new craze. Baudoin happened to see what was going
on and intervened. "Madamoiselle Chanel," he said gently,
"you are living proof that one must not be merely dressed,
but well-dressed." Coco Chanel never forgot his words.
Unlike
Cannes and Le Cap d"Antibes however, Juan Les Pins was
never in itself to become fashionable, but it did become
commercially highly successful. Clever publicity promoted
Juan-les-Pins as pyjamaland, and casual wear, especially
beach pyjamas, became almost de rigeur. Now an energetic
party town with bars, nightclubs and casinos , Juan-les-Pins
is practically open all hours, and quite possibly one
of the most international resorts in the world.
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