Why go
Hyères, Saint-Raphaël and Cap Ferrat were more than scenic backdrops for interwar visitors. Edith Wharton worked near Hyères; F. Scott Fitzgerald spent time at Saint-Raphaël; Somerset Maugham bought a house on Cap Ferrat. These connections help explain the coast’s change from a mainly winter health resort to a summer destination.
The full story
The First World War changed the European aristocracy that had shaped the Riviera’s winter season. In the 1920s, Americans arrived in greater numbers, helped by a strong dollar, while summer became more important to the coast’s social life. The Train Bleu, a first-class sleeper service from Calais, began running in 1922 and became one symbol of the period’s long-distance travel. Literary lives also spread along the coast. Edith Wharton wrote The Age of Innocence at a villa near Hyères. F. Scott Fitzgerald and Zelda Fitzgerald visited Hyères, Cannes and Monte Carlo in 1924, then stayed at Saint-Raphaël, where he worked on The Great Gatsby. Somerset Maugham bought the Villa Mauresque on Cap Ferrat in 1926. These are separate stories in separate towns, not a single literary quarter. Together they explain why the Riviera’s interwar image differs from its earlier identity as a winter refuge for British visitors.