Juan-les-Pins

Juan-les-Pins (French pronunciation: ​[ʒɥɑ̃ le pɛ̃]; Occitan: Joan dei Pins) is a town and a health resort and spa in the commune of Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes, in southeastern France, on the Côte d'Azur. It is situated between Nice and Cannes, 13 kilometres (8 mi) from Nice Côte d'Azur Airport.

Juan-les-Pins
Health Resort and Spa
Evening view on the Mediterranean Sea from Juan-les-Pins
Juan-les-Pins
Coordinates: 43°34′16″N 7°06′34″E
Country France
Region Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
Department Alpes-Maritimes
ArrondissementGrasse
CantonVallauris-Antibes-Ouest
Municipality Antibes
Elevation
10 m (30 ft)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
Postal code
06600

It is a major holiday destination popular with the international jet-set, with casino, nightclubs and beaches,[1] which are made of fine grained sand, and are not straight, but instead are cut with small inlets.

La Baigneuse by Alfonse Grebel on Ave. Guy de Maupassant

History

Situated west of the town of Antibes on the western slope of the ridge, halfway to the old fishery village of Golfe-Juan (where Napoleon landed in 1815), it had been an area with many stone pine trees (pins in French), where the inhabitants of Antibes used to go for a promenade, for a picnic in the shadow of the stone pine trees or to collect tree branches and cones for their stoves.

The village was given the name Juan-les-Pins on 12 March 1882. The spelling Juan, used instead of the customary French spelling, Jean, derives from the local Occitan dialect. Other names discussed for the town include Héliopolis, Antibes-les-Pins and Albany-les-Pins (after the Duke of Albany, the fourth son of Queen Victoria).

The following year, 1883, it was decided to build a railway station in Juan-les-Pins on the Paris-Lyon-Méditerranée (PLM) line that had been there since 1863.

Exterior of Juan-les-Pins train station.
Railway bridge on Ave. Amiral Courbet, Juan les Pins

In 1926, the famous hotel Le Provençal was opened and received guests like Charlie Chaplin, Lilian Harvey, Jack L. Warner and Man Ray.[2]

Le Provençal during renovations in 2013

Jazz à Juan
Main article: Jazz à Juan
  • Hand impressions of performers at Jazz à Juan festival on Boulevard Edouard Baudoin, Juan les Pins
  • Ray Charles' hand impression on Boulevard Edouard Baudoin, Juan les Pins

Cultural references

F. Scott Fitzgerald mentions Juan les Pins in Tender is the Night.

Peter Sarstedt famously mentions Juan-les-Pins in his 1969 UK number one hit, "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)"; a portrait of a girl who becomes a member of the Euro jet-set. The song mentions that the girl spends her summer vacations in Juan-les-Pins.

"Golfe Juan" is the name of a pointillist painting done by Paul Signac, a French neo-impressionist, in 1896.

Juan-les-Pins is prominent in Sartre's The Reprieve, the second volume of his Roads to Freedom trilogy.

The area is also the home of Lanny Budd, the protagonist in eleven Upton Sinclair novels.

In Charles R. Jackson's novel The Lost Weekend, the main character, Don Birnam, mentions a holiday in Juan-les-Pins. In Alan Furst's novel "Kingdom of Shadows", protagonist Nicholas Morath, his Argentine girlfriend Cara, and assorted friends spend early June 1938 in Juan-les-Pins. Near the end of Donna Tartt's ' 'The Goldfinch' ', the protagonist travels to many 'exotic places,' such as Juan-Les-Pins, to rectify his wrongdoings.

Camille Aubray's fictional novel Cooking for Picasso takes place in Juan-les-Pins.

Points of interest

Personalities

Twin towns

See also
  • Gare de Juan-les-Pins

References
  1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeH0QmNJh7I
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwUALUGh9R8
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