Tracing the footsteps of F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald on the French Riviera
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The Bar Fitzgerald in the Hôtel Belles Rives qualifies as one of Europe’s most sybaritic literary shrines. Resembling the interior of a Jazz Age ocean liner and filled with stylish art-deco furniture, it is perched above the glittering waters of Cap d’Antibes, offering voluptuous views across the French Riviera to Cannes.
It is easy to see why F. Scott Fitzgerald declared this coast “the loveliest piece of earth I’ve ever seen." This hotel started life as a rental house called Villa St. Louis, where F.
Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald lived in the mid-1920s with their young daughter, Scottie, and their ghosts are everywhere: A near-life-size photo of the author greets visitors at the entrance, and the walls are adorned with vintage snaps of the party-loving couple frolicking on the sands, as well as portraits of their friends Gerald and Sara Murphy, the charming, well-to-do U.S. expats who lured artists to these shores. It was aperitif hour, so I ordered a Rose Fitzgerald cocktail, which mixes Scott’s favorite tipple, gin, with raspberry purée, litchi, cranberry and lime, while a pianist tinkled Cole Porter standards.
“Scott and Zelda did what they did best here," says Antoine Chauvin-Estène, the fourth-generation family CEO of the Belles Rives. “They spent their money and drank. They were at their most fashionable here.
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