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Provence, France, puts Picasso in the frame at new museum

16.09.11

And so it is with Mougins in Provence, where the likes of Francis Picabia, Jean Cocteau, Man Ray and Fernand Leger used to visit.

Pablo Picasso came here in 1936 and, to the fury of his hotel's owner, painted on the walls of his room. He was instructed to cover over his work, but he returned, by then not exactly skint himself, and spent the last 12 years of his life in Mougins. He died there in 1973.

Now this little hill town of pre-Roman origins, with its simple, compact buildings wound tightly into defensive circuits of curving streets, finds itself suffused with wealth.

A few miles inland from Cannes, Mougins offers more cultured pleasures than that sometimes tawdry place, while still gathering some of its stardust. It has been popular with Winston Churchill, Elizabeth Taylor and Catherine Deneuve, and is famous for its restaurants; there's even an annual festival of gastronomy. The town is also packed with art galleries, which are not all as good as its restaurants, but they encompass every imaginable genre, from picturesque landscapes to teeth-grating conceptual installations.

Source: The Australian