Vallauris is a French commune located in the department of Alpes-Maritimes, in region Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Its inhabitants are called the Vallaurians. Vallauris is part of the Sophia Antipolis technopolis and an integral part of the agglomeration community of Sophia Antipolis.
Vallauris Golfe Juan in the Maritime Alps, 5 km from Cannes or Antibes Juan les Pins. City of art recognized for its ceramists and potters: Picasso practiced this art and bequeathed numerous works to the museum.
Geography
The historic site of Vallauris is located on a hill inland, near Antibes. The commune of Vallauris Golfe-Juan is served by the transport network of the agglomeration community of Sophia Antipolis: Envibus, namely lines: 5, 8, 17, 18, 19, 20. Line 18 links Vallauris to Cannes train station. It is operated by Envibus but has the distinction of having double pricing. In addition to the Envibus pricing, the pricing of the Cannes bus network: Bus Azur is in effect on this line. In summer, an Envibus shuttle is set up and links the city center to the coast (and its beaches). The interurban linen o 200 azure Lines providing the connection between Nice and Cannes (via Antibes ) serves the town of Vallauris Golfe-Juan.
At the rail level, the Golfe-Juan-Vallauris station is located on the Grasse – Ventimiglia line and is therefore served by the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur TER. Vallauris Golfe-Juan is located a few kilometers from the A8 motorway, exit Antibes, and is located approximately 20 kilometers from Nice-Côte d’Azur airport.
History
Vallis Aurea appears in the texts to x th century as part of the bishopric of Antibes. Half of the episcopatus, of the temporal period, of the bishopric of Antibes is given by the Count of Provence Guillaume I to Rodoard who had participated in the reconquest of eastern Provence on the Saracens around 960. The descendants of Rodoard, qualified in certain charters as “princes of Antibes” before taking the name of “de Grasse”, made several successive donations concerning several of their possessions, including Vallauris. Some of the members of this family were bishops of Antibesfrom 1026 to 1093. These donations are mentioned in the cartulary of Lérins Abbey, the most important of which is that of December 9, 1038. But epidemics of the xv th century and bands of looters decimate the population dispersed.
Renaissance of the village and appearance of the pottery tradition in modern times
The April 20, 1501, Dom Raynier Lascaris, prior of Lérins and lord of Vallauris, gives in perpetual emphyteusis the whole territory to families originating from his county of Ventimiglia, as well as “other men wanting to live in this place of Vallauris”. It imposes a plan for the reconstruction of the village. This is the origin of the ” castrum ” today called “old town”. In this act of habitation, mention is already made of Vallauris pottery, as well as glassware: “… the said Lord Prieur… reserved the lesde or gabelle… of all the earth and glass vases… which will go on sale at the so-called Vallauris terroir ”.
Over the years, municipal life got organized and changed, until 1787, the date of the secularization of the Lérins monastery. Some examples of the evolution of demography: in 1540, there were 98 houses; in 1608, 200 houses; in 1698, 300 inhabited houses for 367 heads of families; in 1765, 293 inhabited houses and 1,309 inhabitants.
Contemporary period: From pottery to tourism
The 1 st March 1815, Napoleon disembarks in Vallauris, in the Gulf of Juan, on his return from the island of Elba. It is especially at the end of the xix th century, as important planning work was done. It is the transition from the way of life from the Middle Ages to modern times: in 1861, the new mayor Thomas Adolphe Aynaud appointed by the emperor to replace Jérôme Gazan, unable to attend, built the town hall, the installation of the tram in 1899, the construction of the boys ‘school in the same year, and the girls’ school in 1908. Electricity arrived in 1919. The war memorial dates from 1923, and is due to Delfoly’s chisel.
The arrival of water from the Siagne canal, around 1900, enabled the development of agriculture, and in particular the cultivation of the orange tree with flowers, the bigaradier. Today, Vallauris is the only city in France where this tree is still cultivated to harvest its flower and distill it. Industrial culinary pottery has always been for centuries, with the work of the earth, the main activity of the city. But at the beginning of the xx th century, she became artistic pottery and ceramics, with family Massier. The international ceramics biennial continues to make the city “The French city of ceramics”.
The expansion of the hamlet of Golfe-Juan is related to the development of tourism, and especially the arrival of the railroad in the second half of the xix th century. Illustrious personalities had villas built on the hillside. After the Second World War, there was a very prosperous period when famous artists, attracted by the reputation of Vallauris, came to settle there, including Pablo Picasso. The famous painter donated to the city of the Man with the sheep in 1950, and in 1955, of the fresco the War and the Peace installed in a room of the castle become National museum.
Napoleon I and Gulf of Juan
It is from this place that Napoleon I first began the his march to Paris for the Hundred Days. The Hundred Days War, also known as the War of the Seventh Coalition, marked the period between Napoleon’s return from exile on the island of Elba to Paris on 20 March 1815 and the second restoration of King Louis XVIII on 8 July 1815 (a period of 111 days). This period saw the War of the Seventh Coalition, and includes the Waterloo Campaign, the Neapolitan War as well as several other campaigns.
While the Allies were distracted, Napoleon solved his problem in characteristic fashion. On 26 February 1815, when the British and French guard ships were absent, he slipped away from Portoferraio on board the French brig Inconstant with some 1,000 men and landed at Golfe-Juan, between Cannes and Antibes, on 1 March 1815. Except in royalist Provence, he was warmly received. He avoided much of Provence by taking a route through the Alps, marked today as the Route Napoléon.
Picasso and Vallauris
In 1948 Picasso came to live in Vallauris, where he stayed until 1955. During his time in the town, he created a great many sculptures and paintings including his mural War and Peace, one of the major artworks of the period. He also developed a fascination for the techniques of ceramics and linocuts.
A freeman of the town, Picasso greatly contributed to the renaissance of the Vallauris pottery industry in the 1950s, this legendary golden age when everyone was a potter, including famous ceramicists Roger Capron and Charles Voltz. Many inhabitants still evoke his presence and that of his contemporaries (Françoise Gilot and her children Claude and Paloma, then Jacqueline Roque, his last partner whom he married amid the greatest secrecy at Vallauris town hall in 1961), the bullfights, exhibitions and visits by all kinds of famous people.
Historical monuments
Column commemorating the landing of Napoleon
Vallauris Castle. This castle has been classified as a historic monument since the November 2, 1951 for its chapel, and an inscription from the May 23, 1951for the facades and roofs of the chateau.
Domaine des Trois Moulins de la Valmasque. The Trois Moulins de la Valmasque estate is an old estate located in a place called Les Clausonnes, on the territory of the municipalities of Valbonne and Vallauris, in France.
Oppidum du Mont-Pezou. The Pezou oppidum is a Ligurian oppidum located in the town of Vallauris in the French department of Alpes-Maritimes, at the edge of Le Cannet. The grounds of the camp were the subject of inscriptions as historic monuments the January 26, 1978 and June 20, 1983.
Lighthouse of Vallauris. To improve access to the entrance passes to Golfe-Juan and to avoid the Fourmigue passes located in the middle of Golfe-Juan, it was decided to build a lighthouse in 1886. The first lighthouse, 17 meters high, was built by the sea at Golfe-Juan in 1900. The lighthouse is located in n o 1068 boulevard des Horizons, the “hill of the Moor.” It overlooks the bay of Golfe-Juan. Placed in the middle of exotic vegetation and villas it is discreet and remains relatively unknown to residents. Thanks to this installation in height, its focus is placed 167 m above sea level, which makes it the highest lighthouse in Europe.
Museums
The Magnelli museum – ceramic museum is one of the few places in France that represents contemporary ceramic creation.
The pottery museum presents an interesting retrospective of the work of clay as it was practiced even in the first half of the xx th century.
Other monuments
The Castle Robert (formerly Villa Gazan ), dating from 1867, built by Ferdinand Dervieu, mayor of Vallauris and property of Baron Pierre de Caters to 1914. This vast and luxurious residence with oriental architecture was attached to the Castle of the Horizon, property of Prince Ali Khan then of a Saudi prince. It is surrounded by a vast botanical park of 15 ha, planted with palm trees and eucalyptus in particular. After many years of abandonment, the whole area is bought by the municipality.
The Castle of the Horizon.
The Heliomarin Center of Vallauris, on the Julia route, overlooking the bay of Cannes, built in 1934 by the Parisian architect Pierre Souzy for Doctor Jean Saidman. It is a former heliotherapy therapeutic sanatorium designed by doctor Saidman to treat bone or joint tuberculosis. Exposure to the sun is at the heart of the therapy proposed by Dr Saidman, but the design of the building must also allow the patients’ rest and well-being. Originally there were 300 beds and 130 caregivers. This design led the architect to realize a building in grains in the manner of hygienic dwellings built by Henri Sauvage20 years earlier. To increase the patient’s exposure to the sun’s rays, there was originally a rotating solarium which only worked for two years.
Religious buildings
Sainte-Anne-Saint-Martin church, avenue Clemenceau, built in 1839 on the site of the Saint-Bernardin chapel
Saint-Pierre church in Golfe-Juan, avenue de la Liberté xix th century
Chapel of Mercy, avenue Jaubert, former chapel of the Black Penitents built in 1664
Chapel of Our Lady of Grace Road Notre Dame xvii th century
Chapelle Saint-Bernard Road Encourdoules the xvii th century
Saint Roch’s Chapel Road Notre Dame xvii th century
Chapel at the castle.
Gulf of Juan
The Gulf of Juan is a gulf on the French coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It extends from the tip of the Croisette in Cannes to the Cap d’Antibes in Antibes.
It gave its name to the locality of Golfe-Juan in Vallauris in the Alpes-Maritimes department. The name of the gulf is also to be compared to that of Juan-les-Pins which is a district of the neighboring city Antibes.
French Riviera
The French Riviera is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is usually considered to extend from Cassis, Toulon or Saint-Tropez on the west to Menton at the France–Italy border in the east, where the Italian Riviera joins. The coast is entirely within the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region of France. The Principality of Monaco is a semi-enclave within the region, surrounded on three sides by France and fronting the Mediterranean. Riviera is an Italian word that corresponds to the ancient Ligurian territory, wedged between the Var and Magra rivers.
The climate of the Côte d’Azur is temperate Mediterranean with mountain influences on the northern parts of the departments of Var and Alpes-Maritimes. It is characterized by dry summers and mild winters which help reduce the likelihood of freezing. The Côte d’Azur enjoys significant sunshine in mainland France for 300 days a year.
This coastline was one of the first modern resort areas. It began as a winter health resort for the British upper class at the end of the 18th century. With the arrival of the railway in the mid-19th century, it became the playground and vacation spot of British, Russian, and other aristocrats, such as Queen Victoria, Tsar Alexander II and King Edward VII, when he was Prince of Wales. In the summer, it also played home to many members of the Rothschild family. In the first half of the 20th century, it was frequented by artists and writers, including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Francis Bacon, Edith Wharton, Somerset Maugham and Aldous Huxley, as well as wealthy Americans and Europeans. After World War II, it became a popular tourist destination and convention site. Many celebrities, such as Elton John and Brigitte Bardot, have homes in the region.
The eastern part (maralpine) of the Côte d’Azur has been largely transformed by the concreting of the coast linked to the tourist development of foreigners from North Europe and the French,. The Var part is better preserved from urbanization with the exception of the agglomeration of Fréjus-Saint-Raphaël affected by the demographic growth of the maralpin coast and the agglomeration of Toulon which has been marked by urban sprawl on its part West and by a spread of industrial and commercial areas (Grand Var).