Culture and Fashion

The mythical hotel-restaurant in Saint-Paul de Vence is a mysterious and iconic place where artists haven’t stopped getting together and searching for inspiration… Today, the Colombe d’Or remains one of the treasures of Provence; here’s our portrait of the cult spot.

By Caroline Taret - Photos La Colombe d’Or - December 2, 2011

The history of the Colombe d’Or is first and foremost the story of a family, of people known by their first names and who for almost a century have been establishing sincere and intimate friendships with the artists of the day: Paul, Titine, Francis, François, Danièle and Pitou have created and preserved an exceptional place. And its singularity comes not only from its architecture, but also from something immaterial, a feeling, an emotion that these old walls breathe, of laughter and memory, a few ghosts and the marks of a century of artistic creation. Before becoming in the 1920s an inn serving good food and with three rooms, the Colombe d’Or was a café,

a meeting place in the centre of the village of Saint-Paul de Vence. It was Paul Roux and his wife Titine who created La Colombe and instilled a welcoming and warm-hearted spirit to the place: their love for artists prompted them to open the doors of their establishment in exchange for artworks; the beginning of an incredible collection. Paul Roux appreciated as much the work of Picasso, Matisse, Miro, Léger as he did their company, rapidly making of his Colombe a cultural centre as much as a vacation destination. The Colombe became a hangout for gangs, a place favorable to groups of friends getting together, attracting with its restaurant and good

company the worlds of cinema and literature. If the walls could talk, they would recount Yves Montand and Simone Signoret falling in love by the pool, the boozy parties of crews for cult films: Michel Carné and Jacques Prévert’s “The Devil’s Envoys” in 1941 or “The Wages of Fear” in 1953 with Henri-Georges Clouzot, and the Venture-Montand-Reggiani trio. Since then, cinema has maintained an emotional connection with La Colombe, which still today welcomes big stars with complete discretion. Like the writers, who don’t hide their love for a place that certain consider as the perfect setting in which to be inspired and to hide out and work. And we let ourselves imagine an unlikely dinner, like Edward Hopper’s

“Nighthawks” and its American diner, a sort of ideal table: Picasso, Calder, the Montands, Bernard Henri-Lévy, Jacques Prévert, Romy Schneider… The Colombe d’Or is certainly a mythic place, but it’s also a superb haunt whose vintage atmosphere charms as soon as you cross the threshold. Kept as it was, the inn continues to reflect the Roux family’s first ambitions, that is to say, a genuine, friendly and unpretentious place with a family atmosphere. An appropriateness that is fact extremely chic… There are no flourishes in the décor, only remarkable artworks, mind-blowing because hung here by those who made them. Alexander Calder’s Stabile with its colored discs adorns the swimming pool, Fernand Léger’s ceramic fresco watches over our lunch in the shadow of the fig

trees and a portrait of Picasso glowers at the guests. A few steps from this hotel that today counts 13 rooms and 12 apartments, the Maeght Foundation continues to put art at the centre of any visit to the hilltop village of Saint-Paul de Vence, encouraging lovers of art and of history to experience the places where important artists, and those that loved them, lived and worked.

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La Colombe d’Or
Hôtel Restaurant
Saint-Paul-de-Vence
04.93.32.80.02
www.la-colombe-dor.com