Correspondence
A LETTER FROM THE RIVIERA.
- [To the Editor of the -SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—Like all the rest of the world, the Riviera has been having some of the worst winter weather on- record. One mentions it, of course, with apologies and sotto voce ; for the only kind of Riviera weather that one talks about out loud is when the sun shines brilliantly ; when charming young ladies can display themselves in the briefest costumes on the sands, and the crowds watching lawn tennis are photographed shading their eyes from the glare. And we have had intervals of that too. But for heavy and continuous rains, for snow and bitter frost which swept the gardens bare of flowers, reduced all but the hardiest plants to clumps of sodden pulp, wrecked the orange and lemon crops and shrivelled the eucalyptus trees—for theie things the winter of 1927-28 will be long remembered as the worst the Riviera ever knew. But when all is said, we have fared better than most. It has been an annus terribilis everywhere.
After all, the course travelled by pleasure resorts is always much the same. Heaven lies about them in their infancy. To English , eyes in mid-Victorian times, Boulogne was apparelled in celestial light. Then Ostend and Dieppe came trailing clouds of glory. Next Troriville—what a vision splendid it was that attended Trouville forty years or so ago, until the wastes across the river were parcelled out for building and Deauville arose ! So Cabourg, Le Touquet, the Lido— to each in turn its season as of freshness and a dream ; and if the radiance Which was once so bright tends inevitably to fade into the light of common day, it does not by any means signify that the places are less gay, less sumptuous, less enjoy- able than they were. On the contrary, it means that they have arrived. They hive become established, civilized, and equipped with all modern comforts, and are vastly more agreeable places to stay in than ever they were in their days of visionary gleam. .
So it is with the Riviera : we are getting to know all about it. It is no longer romantic and remote. Its windows are not magic casements nor is the Mediterranean a faery sea ; but for human nature's daily food there are fifty hotels now more luxurious than any one was in the first year after the War, a score of lawn tennis courts for every one there was ten years ago, and casinos, dancing floors, restaurants, golf courses, polo grounds—all the paraphernalia of modern holiday-making—on a scale that is probably not to be found on any similar area of the earth's surface.
There should, then, no longer be any need to make pretence about the weather. The young and vigorous and roystering who love winter sports had better be frankly told to go to Switzerland. Those who ask for warmth would be well advised to cross the Mediterranean or go farther afield. But for a high average of days in which you can enjoy open-air games in the winter sunshine, with every equipment for luxurious living, then there is no place within any reasonable reach of the British Isles that can approach the Riviera.
In the latter half of . January, of course, the Season is officially only just beginning. January 15th was the date at which visitors who came here earlier were warned that hotel charges would be advanced to " full season " level ; and, in -spite of the usual gloomy forebodings, the next three months promise to be as tumultuous as in any preceding year. Nice is preparing to celebrate its jubilee—the fiftieth year—of Carnival as tempestuously as possible. Cannes has- in hand a celebration in honour of Lord Brougham, the " discoverer " of the Riviera. Monte Carlo is to have a fortnight.. of Russian ballet ; and at both Monte Carlo and Nice the musical and operatic season tends more and more to approach those of the great capitals. Marshal Foch is coming down to the unveiling of the Nice War Memorial, a noble monument carved in the solid rock of the Castle Hill facing out to sea. In the realm of sport, the polo season has opened at Mandelieu. Cannes harbour is crowded with yachts. All the golf courses are being played on " to capacity " ; and in lawn tennis, if promises materialize, we arc to have such a gathering of the first-class players from various countries as, perhaps, have never come together except at Wimbledon.—
,. I am, Sir, &c., Youa RIVIERA CORRESPONDENT.
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