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Sunset over the sea from the ramparts of AntibesSunset over the sea from the ramparts of Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes
©Sunset over the sea from the ramparts of Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes|Ville Antibes-Juan les Pins

La Côte d’Azur, a land of inspiration for Guillaume Musso

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  4. La Côte d’Azur, a land of inspiration for Guillaume Musso

Musso, the child of the Côte d’Azur and prolific writer whose novels beat all the records for sales in France and all over the world, fills his writing with descriptions of the Mediterranean towns and landscapes where he grew up. Here is a small selection (non-exhaustive).

Guillaume Musso

The Antibois who has conquered the world with his writing

He has been the most-read author in France for 20 years. His thrillers and suspense novels have been adapted several times for the cinema and series, translated into around fifty languages and 35 million copies have been sold. Guillaume Musso is a real literary phenomenon! Before becoming famous, the writer spent his childhood in Antibes, the town where he was born in 1974. His mother managed the town library, and he often went there. He developed a taste for literature and writing at an early age. His first novel Skidamarink (Ed. Anne Carrière and then Calmann-Levy), came out in 2001. But it was the following one, Afterwards…, published in 2004 (XO Editions) that brought him success. The intrigues of several of his books take place on the Côte d’Azur, a place he loves even though he doesn’t live there any more and whose duality he adores: “In people’s imagination, these Mediterranean landscapes represent beauty, the sun and celebrity. But all it takes is for the weather to change and it switches to a much darker atmosphere”. (Interview on France 3 Côte d’Azur).

Wide shot of the fort carré harbour and its boatsPort du fort carré in Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes
©Port du fort carré in Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes|Ville Antibes-Juan les Pins
    View of the fortified monastery of Saint-Honorat and the sea, in the Lérins IslandsView of the fortified monastery of Saint-Honorat in the Lérins Islands, off Cannes
    ©View of the fortified monastery of Saint-Honorat in the Lérins Islands, off Cannes|FEcochard

      The Lérins Islands

      The fatal stage of Quelqu’un d’autre

      In Quelqu’un d’autre, (Calmann-Levy, 2024) Oriana Di Pietro, an editor and Italian heiress, is found savagely attacked on a yacht drifting between the Lérins Islands, opposite Cannes. She dies after ten days in a coma. Musso manages to render all the specific features of this paradisical place on the Côte d’Azur: “She had dropped anchor between the two largest Lérins islands, where the sea turns to turquoise. [… ] From this position on high, she could take in the whole landscape: the blue horizon, the Esterel range, the Romanesque silhouette of the fortified monastery of Saint-Honorat.” These protected coastal islands charm at first sight. Sainte-Marguerite is home to creeks, pine and eucalyptus forests and Fort Royal, with its Musée du Masque de fer et du Fort Royal. You can visit the former State prisons and the cell where the mysterious prisoner lived for 11 years. The neighbouring island, Saint-Honorat, has had a monastery since 410AD whose role was a key one for the dissemination of Christianity in the Western world. It has kept its spiritual identity: a congregation of Cistercian monks lives in the fortified monastery.

      iles-lerins.jpg
      ©S. Le Pelley
      Lérins Islands
      The Lérins islands “Iles de Lérins” face the bay of Cannes, in the Alpes Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. The archipelago is made of five...
      Ile Saint-Honorat
      Ile Saint-Honorat
      St Honorat island, is home to Lérins Abbey. The island was founded by Saint Honorat in the 5th century. It exudes an air of spirituality and boasts vestiges of the past...
      Ile Sainte-Marguerite
      Ile Sainte-Marguerite
      A short boat ride from La Croisette, opposite the Bay of Cannes, the Lérins Islands offer a welcoming sight. In an idyllic setting where nature is protected, these beauty spots...
      Fort Royal - Ile Sainte-Marguerite
      Fort Royal - Ile Sainte-Marguerite
      The Fort-Royal, on Sainte-Marguerite's Island became a state prison in 1685 and hosted the legendary Man with the Iron Mask. Vauban was responsible for its final appearance....
      Musée du Masque de Fer et du Fort Royal
      Musée du Masque de Fer et du Fort Royal
      Archaeology on land and underwater, cell occupied by the Man in the Iron Mask.

      L’île Beaumont or Porquerolles

      Epicentre of La vie secrète des écrivains

      A famous author, Nathan Fawles, lives far from the world in his house on the cliffs of île Beaumont, in the Mediterranean – a place which seems to be a paradise. But only seems to be: the corpse of a woman is discovered crucified on the beach. In La vie secrète des écrivains (Calmann-Levy, 2019), Musso talks about the writing profession and imagines a fictional island, which was doubtless inspired by the island of Porquerolles, opposite Hyères. He writes: “L’île Beaumont, three-quarters of an hour from the Var coast, was shaped like a semicircular crescent of around fifteen kilometres by six. It was always presented as a wild, protected setting, one of the pearls of the Mediterranean, with creeks and turquoise water, cliffs, pine forests and sandy beaches. The eternal Côte d’Azur, with no tourists, pollution or concrete. (…) A little bit of France which wasn’t really France.” There’s no better description of the largest of the three Hyères islands, the Mecca for cyclists, hikers and swimmers!

      Sailing yacht off the coast of PorquerollesSailing yacht off the coast of Porquerolles, in the Var region of France
      ©Sailing yacht off the coast of Porquerolles, in the Var region of France|Sayegh.J
        View of the sea from the Tirepoil path in AntibesSentier De Tirepoil in Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes
        ©Sentier De Tirepoil in Antibes, in the Alpes-Maritimes|Ville Antibes-Juan les Pins

          Antibes

          The tragic backdrop for The Reunion

          Winter 1992 on the Côte d’Azur. Vinca Rockwell, a student in preparatory class, runs away with her philosophy teacher. No one will ever see her again. Spring 2017, the same place. Vinca’s former best friends meet up. 25 years before, they committed murder and the corpse may be discovered. With The Reunion (Calmann-Levy, 2018), Musso goes back to his roots: the plot takes place in Antibes, his birth town. Using the voice of one of his characters, it is a real declaration of love: “A town apart, protected from the glitz of some other parts of the Côte. The town of jazz, and the Americans of the Lost Generation, that I had introduced Vinca to, the town which, extraordinarily, had been home to most of the artists who had counted in my life. Maupassant had moored his boat, Le Bel Ami, there, Scott Fitzgerald et Zelda had spent the night at Les Belles Rives after the war, Picasso2 had set up his studio in the Château Grimaldi, a stone’s throw from the apartment where Nicolas de Staël had painted his most beautiful paintings…” Several passages from The Reunion take place on the famous Sentier des Douaniers, also known as Sentier de Tirepoil, a natural setting on the Cap d’Antibes. “Vinca had always loved the place because it was wild and was nothing like the hackneyed summer image of the French Riviera. Under the sun, you were captivated by the white and ochre brilliance of the limestone rocks, and by the infinite variations of blue bathing the little creeks.”

           

          Concert Festival Jazz Des Cinq Continents Marseille CchillioConcert Festival Jazz Des Cinq Continents Marseille Cchillio
          ©Concert Festival Jazz Des Cinq Continents Marseille Cchillio|Chillio.C
          The Sud region and jazz, a lasting love story
          At the end of the 1940s, American jazzmen discovered the Côte d’Azur and never went home. Every summer, from Juan-les-Pins to and from Ramatuelle to Marseille, the Sud region...
          Hôtel Belles Rives
          Hôtel Belles Rives
          A breathtaking art deco palace in a spectacular Côte d’Azur setting, Hôtel Belles Rives sits on the water’s edge overlooking the sparkling Mediterranean Sea with outstanding...
          Musée Picasso
          Musée Picasso
          The Château Grimaldi became the "Picasso Museum" on 27 December 1966. Picasso stayed there from mid-September to mid-November 1946 and produced many works. He left 23 paintings...
          simona-2018-15793-antibes-2.jpg
          Antibes Beaches

          … And the starting point for beautiful adventures on the Côte d’Azur

          More widely speaking, Guillaume Musso’s The Reunion pays homage to all of the eastern part of the Côte d’Azur. The protagonists’ adventures are not limited to Antibes. Together, they explore as far as Menton and the hinterland: “I had taken her to all the places I loved in the region – the gardens of Menton, the Villa Kérylos, the gardens of the Maeght Foundation, the narrow streets of Tourrettes-sur-Loup… [… ] We hiked the La Colmiane via ferrata, devoured socca in the Provencal market in Antibes, put the world to rights in front of the Genoese tower on the Plage des Ondes”.

          The Villa Kérylos photographed from the seaThe Villa Kérylos in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes
          ©The Villa Kérylos in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Alpes-Maritimes|CMoirenc

            Nice

            A port of call for L’inconnue de la Seine

            One evening in December in Paris, a young woman almost drowns in the River Seine, before being saved naked and amnesic. L’inconnue de la Seine (Calmann-Levy, 2021), a gripping investigation against the backdrop of a plane crash and the cult of Dionysos, leads investigator Roxane Montchrestien to stop off on the Côte d’Azur: at the Cap d’Antibes, and then the motorway junction at La Turbie, near Menton, then Nice, at the police station: “The car parked on Rue de l’Hôtel-des-Postes in front of a big ochre building with a monumental facade. Its pediment, symmetry, and bas-reliefs were all typical of the NeoClassical style to be found all over the town, from Place Garibaldi to Cours Saleya“.

             

            Cours Saleya Nice AcelindanoCours Saleya seen from above on a market day
            ©Cours Saleya seen from above on a market day|ACelindano
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