Original subtitles

Il n 'était qu 'un petit con, mais elle aimait Henri.

Il n 'était qu 'un voyou, mais elle s 'était prise du

monde qui était beau, qui n 'était qu 'un gigolo.

Il a fallu l 'aimer à Saint -Tropez.

Elle lui achetait des trucs.

The Côte d 'Azur, that strip of overexposed sand and rock, runs from

in the southwest to the town of Menton, which squats indolently a few kilometers

from the Italian border.

Menton is best known for its talent for growing lemons all the year round.

And if ever you feel like a lemon...

Menton is the best place to come to.

Where you find lemons, there are also the well -known lemon squeezers.

These helpful and assiduous young men are the Boy Scouts of the south of

and are forever helping old ladies across the road.

Each year, the lemon squeezers endeavor to squeeze dry as many lemons as they

can catch.

And it may be said to their credit that a visit to Montand is not complete

without the experience of watching a lemon squeezer at work.

In 1848, the Prince of Monaco lost the town of Montand.

and then spent the next 12 years looking for it. It was eventually discovered by

Napoleon III, who bought it for 4 million francs. When he was asked why he

so much, he said that the answer was a lemon.

The French Riviera, which occupies the distance between Montand and Nice,

features three winding coastal roads, the Grande, Moyenne and Basconche.

Here we may find the true nature lover and tourist trudging arduously along the

road, heavily laden with rucksacks and camping equipment, spurning disdainfully

the noisy luxury of the motorcar, and preferring to enjoy nature's delights

simple unadulterated pleasure.

High in the hills above Monte Carlo stands a Roman monument known as the

of the Alps, built by Augustus Caesar in the year 5 BC.

The western face bears an inscription by Pliny, which has been lovingly restored

by a certain Mr. Tuck.

Unfortunately, however, Mr. Tuck appears to have restored the wrong inscription,

because when this tower was built in the year 5 BC, Pliny wasn't even born yet

for another 30 years.

Ever since the 13th century, the barbarians have been coming here in

amusement. In 1705, they tried to blow up the trophy with gunpowder. The

now provide an excellent viewing platform over the surrounding

The tiny medieval village of Aisle and the Vista Aero, a restaurant perched on

the cliff, like an eagle in ambush for unsuspecting rabbits.

Here the weary traveller may eat a simple meal for 15 or 20 pounds and

local wines. The iridescent rosé brought to Provence in the 15th century by good

King René of Anjou or the charming seductive red wines of Cassis and

The tourist is well served by the Riviera which looks on tourism as its

source of income and everywhere the traveller goes to spend her money she

be relieved by eager, willing...

grasping hands.

The Corniche leads us on to the old fortified village of Roquebrune, a

town which has preserved its picturesque character since feudal times.

The village is crowned by a castle which dates from the 10th century and is the

only remaining example in France of the Carolingian type of fortress.

It was built by Conrad I, Count of Ventimiglia, to stop the Saracens

establishing themselves once more in the area.

You will appreciate his success all the more when you consider that the south of

France today is almost totally devoid of Saracens.

From here, we take the coastal road directly to the Bay of Angels and the

tourist capital of the south of France, Nice.

The town was founded by the Greeks of Marseille in the year 350 BC.

They named it after Nicaea, the Greek word for victory.

And, in fact, victory was the key word for most of the invaders who would

over Nice in the succeeding centuries, not the least of which being the war

which involved the heroine of the capital, Catherine Seguran.

It seems that when in the year 1543 Barbarossa was besieging Nice with his

Turkish army the young Catherine appeared at the top of the ramparts with

skirts raised above her head as a defiant insult to the invaders.

Unfortunately the Turks took this gesture as an invitation and promptly

the city within a few days.

Since then the girls of Nice have never looked back.

Where is she going?

She's changing.

She's going back to Paris. She's taking the plane.

Really? Why?

She has to go back to see her parents.

Are you staying?

Yes, I'm staying.

And you? What are you doing?

I'm going to stay for a few days, maybe a little longer.

Listen, now... Here she is.

Ah, yes, here she is.

The import and export business of Nice is largely confined to people who arrive

and depart in steadily increasing numbers each year.

Nice Airport, which deals with much of the trade, handles something approaching

a million passengers every summer.

Of these, by far the largest proportion are innocent holidaymakers,

comptometer operators, sociologists,

Christian scientists and members of the Chamber of Commerce.

A certain number of travelers have business interests in the south of

They and their associates can receive a sizable percentage of the 8 .5 million

pounds spent in France every year by tourists.

The government subsidizes the industry with 2 .4 million pounds.

Crime, in particular confidence trickery, burglary, smuggling, tax

evasion and art thefts, cost another 6 .4 million.

Reckoning along these lines, the French government estimates to make from the

tourist industry a profit of about 9 .3 % by the end of the financial year.

As evening comes to the Promenade des Anglais, friends bid each other hail and

farewell.

People get to know each other so quickly here in the sunny south that time flips

by with lightning speed and acquaintanceships blossom and die within

short hours.

Night falls over the promenade, the elegant hotels, the shops and the back

streets of Nice, and the tourist emerges from her hotel, all freshly bathed and

scented, to taste the wild delights of the fun town of the Riviera.

In the bistro, on the trottoir, in the clubs and cafes, the jet set throws

inhibition to the wind as they drink.

dine and dance all night.

Games like Ludo, Monopoly and Snakes and Ladders are played here, often until

the early hours of the morning.

Only the lonely people feel out of it.

For them, Nice is a town without a heart.

When you're alone, there is nothing you can do but...

Drink a solitary cup of coffee and go to bed.

Of course, the nightlife of the Riviera is by no means restricted to dining and

dancing. There are many other things you can get up to.

With the help of a reliable guide, the traveler may look forward to a full and

varied evening, packed with fun and games from start to finish.

Tourist guides are readily available and may be hired by the hour, the day, or

the week.

But unlike the rates for car hire, the price of the guide goes up instead of

down the longer you keep it.

I think it's worth it to... Come on, I have to give it my all.

Come on, old man.

You have to have this one.

Give it to me. Oh, not your mother.

Oh, yes, yes, you're my mother. Come on, give me something to eat.

Stop it, Arsène.

Stop it.

But listen, between us, frankly... No, we're going to swim.

You're hungry? You're not hungry anymore? All right, let's go to the

Let me have the ball!

The obituaries of the coast fall into two distinct types.

There are the doers and there are the watchers.

The watchers spend most of their time wishing they were doers, and the doers

concentrate on giving the watchers something to look at.

Water skiing was brought to the coast by a group of Olympic skiers named Johann,

Albert and Walter, who found themselves with nothing to do during the summer

months. It appears that one evening, as the three of them were sipping sliver

bits in the Tyrolean beer garden, Johann turned to Albert and said, Have you

seen Walter skiing?

And the idea was born.

The Principality of Monaco, which has been in and out of the hands of the

Grimaldi family like a yo -yo for 500 years, has a motto, which

roughly translated means, a change is as good as a rest.

In the 15th century, Jean II was assassinated by his brother Lucien. Then

was assassinated by his nephew Bartholomew.

After this, Honoré I was assassinated by his son.

and thrown into the sea.

All good things come to an end.

And the princes of Monaco thought of a new game and set it up in the casino of

Monte Carlo.

You see that? Here, the bloodshed is confined to the baccarat and roulette

tables and is presided over by the guardian angels who are a constant

the local architecture.

On the Cote d 'Azur, cherubs and seraphs abound in every corner, and nature must

submit to the firm hand of man as he forces his attentions on her, building

grottos and pleasure parks everywhere to satisfy his aesthetic desires.

The south of France has many faces, and the green and fertile mountainsides are

just as much a feature of Provence as the dense and overpopulated coast.

In the hills and valleys of the hinterland, the peasants lovingly

local produce.

Olives, grapes, citrus fruits, and cut flowers.

Early fruit and vegetables are grown in the region of Toulon.

and a year and even if you can't eat it you can always paint it or just

leave it lying around the countryside as

we

continue our journey westward into the setting sun we come to can the founder

tourism in the south can owes the origins of its popularity to lord bruin

Lord Chancellor of England, who in the year 1834 was travelling through on his

way to Nice.

Since there was an outbreak of cholera, Lord Brougham retraced his steps to

Cannes and built the first villa.

Soon all his chums started coming over.

And before long, the Prince of Wales and his coterie of loved ones had made a

habit of spending their riotous winters in the south.

During the early part of this century, it became fashionable for the lesser

crowned heads of Europe to chase each other up and down the promenade.

And with them came the showgirls and dancers, the privileged hangers -on, and

the assorted playmates and backscratchers of the idle rich.

The next town we get to on

our westward journey is Jouan -les -Pins, known for its magnificent beach

fine white sand.

and an excellent facility for sunbathing, swimming and water swimming.

Juar has awakened to a boom of popularity among young people during the

couple of years.

It was here that the Romans first conquered the Gauls in the year 134 BC,

since which time the French have always been an easy prey to the Latin invader.

Dawn breaks and finds us continuing our journey to the little town of Saint

-Tropez, as it lies still half asleep like a tired film star, overexposed and

underdeveloped by the Nouvelle Vague of the French cinema.

The success of Saint -Tropez as a resort is almost entirely due to the devotion

of Brigitte Bardot and Roger Vadim, who together created and God created woman

here. asked all their friends to stay, had babies by each other, and turned

unpretentious little fishing port into the most pretentious little fishing port

in the whole world.

Overnight, so to speak.

The town gets its name from Tropez, a Christian centurion who was beheaded by

the Emperor Nero.

The decapitated head and body were then placed in a boat between a cockerel and

a dog who was supposed to eat him.

When the boat came to this spot and Tropez's remains were left intact, a

named Celerina saw the whole thing in a dream and built a sepulchre on the site

for the corpse, which was later pronounced a saint.

A prominent place on the Quayside is taken up by a statue of the town's hero,

Admiral Soufran.

Soufran distinguished himself not only against the British in Ceylon, but also

in account of his weight and his gout.

After an enthusiastic bloodletting in 1788, however, he promptly died of

The mate foundation at Saint -Paul.

houses an extensive collection of Impressionist and abstract paintings by

artists who lived and worked in the South.

Here are works by many famous artists, notably Cézanne, Dufy,

Braque, Miró, Marc Chagall, and sculptures by Giacometti.

The reason so many artists come to the south of France is on account of the

uninterrupted sunshine and the calm and gentle disposition of the sea.

Saint -Tropez is known familiarly to its patrons as Saint -Trope, which is also

French for too much.

Here, too much is made of the things one can't do enough of elsewhere. People

talk too much, eat too much, and sleep too much.

Also, things cost too much.

Nevertheless, the tiny port has become one of the most fashionable places to be

seen, to buy clothes and to have affairs in the Mediterranean.

Bastard, he's going to get you in the face!

Every year, more and more celebrities come here to get away from it all and to

meet the people they were all getting away from.

In the year 1592, Saint -Tropez repulsed the Duke of Savoy and in 1963, it

disgusted the greater union of American motherhood.

In 1637, during the hectic battle of the Thirty Years' War, the quarrelsome

inhabitants of the town managed to drive away 21 Spanish galleys.

On the 16th of May each year, there is an event known as the Act of Defiance in

which all the men, women and children of the town fire guns at each other.

In fact, it was not until August 1944 when the Americans took over Saint

from the Germans that any foreigner actually felt safe enough to come here.

Thank you.

Another moment of discord is experienced by art lovers who visit the Fernand

Léger Museum at Biote.

Not everyone agrees on the merits of Léger's work, and heated debates on the

value of his abstract aesthetics help to keep the memory of Fernand Léger alive.

The museum features a mural in mosaics from a design by the artist himself.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately for him, Léger died before the museum

built and never saw this immortal tribute to his work.

In the quayside shops of Saint -Tropez, there are many bargains to be picked up

by the casual passerby.

And the art of the pick -up is practiced with skill all along the Azur coast.

With this go the other highly developed trades and industries that have enjoyed

immense success over the last 20 or 30 years.

There are many professions into which a young man may go if he is keen and good

with his hands.

But possibly the pick -up is still the most favoured by -product of the tourist

trade.

The job is no easy one, but a young enthusiast will find the rewards more

adequate if he's prepared to keep his nose to the grindstone.

Under French law, the income of a gigolo is not subject to tax, which can be a

great asset to a young man, saving to get married.

And as with every business, the young salesman finds that there are sometimes

complaints from dissatisfied customers who want their money back or goods

returned.

And

so

we bid farewell.

Sunshine and gaiety of the happy south, the blue skies and the azure sea.

Not goodbye, perhaps, but as we say in French, good riddance to the sunny

of Jouan -les -Pins.

The carefree days in Monte Carlo, Villefranche, and the Ile du Levant,

nudists gambled joyfully amongst the cactus flower.

And on one's journey homeward, one meets people from all walks of life.

And if you're wise, you let them walk, as the French say.

This year, next year, sometime, never, if you're clever, we may be forced

to say greetings once more to the sunny south with a smile, a tear,

and a fond, and oh so fond, hello.

Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.