Jean Cocteau was a French poet, painter, draftsman, playwright and filmmaker. On the French Riviera, Cocteau found a refuge and a place of creation.
It is possible to find traces of his work in the territory, from Fréjus to Menton.
Jean Cocteau was a French poet, painter, draftsman, playwright and filmmaker. On the French Riviera, Cocteau found a refuge and a place of creation.
It is possible to find traces of his work in the territory, from Fréjus to Menton.
MENTON
In 1955, a month after the music festival, Menton Mayor Francis Palmero proposed that Cocteau decorate the Wedding Hall. Later, the hall would be named after the artist.
Then, in 1957, during a walk, Jean Cocteau also discovered the Bastion, an abandoned 17th-century fortress. It was he who would preside over its restoration. The building became, upon his death, the first museum dedicated to him in Menton.
The town of Menton was also a place of inspiration. In fact, here the artist created method of work that he would call “chin style,” based on the whimsy that the city transmitted to him.
VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER
Villefranche-sur-Mer is a place where Cocteau had taken refuge to find tranquility.
As in the case of Menton, Cocteau left traces of his work. He did so with the chapel of Saint-Pierre. Nurtured on the harbor by a fishing fraternity, it was built in the Romanesque style in the mid-16th century. In 1957, as a sign of friendship toward the village fishermen who then owned the chapel, Jean Cocteau undertook its decoration. He used a sober style, without ornamentation but graphic where figuration and abstraction mingled.
FRÉJUS
In 1963, the year of his death, he was entrusted with the architecture and decoration of the Notre-Dame-de-Jérusalem chapel in Fréjus. This ranks among the eclectic monuments of the city of Fréjus. The carnal curves drawn by Cocteau in the chapel punctuate the sun’s rays passing through the stained glass windows. Between Cocteau’s drawings and the dazzling colors, the visit can only be enlightened.