Romancing the French Riviera

In 1892 Paul Signac helmed his small sailing boat into the harbour of the small port town of Saint-Tropez. On mooring, the wide-eyed painter wrote to his mother: “I have enough here to work for a lifetime,” he declared. “I’ve just discovered happiness.” In this he spoke for many artists of the late 19th century. The coastline between Marseille and Menton was largely untouched and sparsely populated, certainly when compared with France’s northern shores. A…