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The Russian Riviera
2011-08-05 08:40
Today, Russian spending power is responsible for a huge amount of Monaco's business. The boutiques of Monte Carlo's 'Golden Quarter' realize 80% of their turnover from Russian buyers, who represent only 20% of their clientele; and the concierge of one hotel who managed to rent a 60-metre yacht in under two hours even received a tip of €3000! When fifty or so Russian visitors hired the prestigious Monte Carlo Tennis Club courts for a private game, the posters for the club were replaced by new ones bearing the legend 'Moscow Open'. Still others rented a Monaco club for an entire evening for €200,000 (without drinks...)
The deputy mayor of Cannes dates these steps in Moscow's direction from 2002. 'The Russians are part of the new clientele to whom we must now turn our attention' , admits Monaco's Director of Tourism.
In the last few years the influx of Russian visitors, mainly from the middle clases, but with more-than-comfortable incomes, has eclipsed the numbers of Western tourists affected by the subprime crisis. But in fact such visitors have a long pedigree.
As early as 1770 mariners and seed merchants from Russia had put in at Nice, but the seasonal migration of Russians to the Côte d'Azur began with the arrival in 1857 of the widow of Nicolas I, who spent the whole winter here with her imposing retinue. In the 1850s, a decade before the creation of Monte Carlo, it seems that Admiral Popov even started negotiations to buy Monaco! In the same period, Grand Duchess Helena, who had transferred her entire court to Nice, could often be seen bathing naked in the Mediterranean even in the middle of winter. During one fete organized in the gardens of her villa, she welcomed up to 5,000 guests.
However, it was the arrival of the railways which made the biggest difference. Just one week after the ceremony organized for the laying of the last piece of the track to Nice, the Emperor Alexander II and his consort arrived.
Although today's Russian visitors - whose economic worth is demonstrated by the number of property or other ads in cyrillic script both in Monaco and Cannes - have abandoned Nice (by now considered too common), at least the city is still marked by the imprint of their illustrious predecessors.
Most significant of all is the iconic Cathedral of St Nicholas, constructed in 1858-9 at the initiative of dowager empress Alexandra Feodorovna, who launched a subscription to provide a place of worship for the hundreds of Russians who preferred the gentle Mediterranean climate to the rigours of thier native land.
Up to the end of the 'Belle Epoque', Nice and Monte Carlo were the sumptuous playgrounds of huge numbers of visitors whose names have gone down in local history, starting with Marie Bashkirtskeff, artist, painter and writer, a woman of somewhat free morals who installed herself at 55 Promenade des Anglais with her servants and who led a style of life which defined the age. She died in 1884 at the age of only 25. A thousand stories have emerged of her expensive tastes, ornamented by a host of anecdotes which continue to fuel the myth of such extravagant, opulent and ultimately tragic Russian 'fêtes'.
During that period one would encounter Russians wherever play and passion came together. On the side of blue-blooded nobility came Princess Souvaroff, the duchess Anastasia Mikhailovna, Prince Tscherkarsky, Grand Duke Mikhail Mikhailovitch, and many more - all leaving their mark on the Cote d'Azur.
But artists and intellectuals - who could scarcely afford to stay in luxury hotels - equally appreciated their time in Nice: Gogol. Lermontov, Pushkin and Tolstoy all stayed there... in the pension Oasis. Chekhov came to Nice to nurse his tuberculosis in the winter of 1897-8. And Russian culture found its figurehead in Serge Diaghilev, founder of the Ballets Russes, which was based in Monte Carlo between 1911 and 1929. Stravinsky and Prokofiev both composed for Diaghilev, who counted Nijinsky and Anna Pavlova among his greatest dancers.
The great diarist and progressive thinker of the 19th century, Alexander Herzen, is buried in Nice. And even Lenin lived there before German High Command (so it is said) offered him safe passage back to Russia on board a 'sealed train' - protected by diplomatic immunity.