Petit voyage dans le temps aujourd'hui, avec 9 cartes postales du même coin de Juan-les-Pins : ce qui aujourd'hui s'appelle le Boulevard Baudouin, ou "Promenade du Soleil" (enfin, son début). Neuf photos, datées de 1903 à 1967, qui permettent de voir l'évolution du lieu...
Cliquez sur la première pour l'agrandir, puis utilisez le bouton next pour passer à la suivante, la date du cliché apparaissant en légende.

A l'occasion, j'irai vous prendre en photo ce qu'est devenu ce quartier aujourd'hui (vous pouvez voir l'endroit dans Google Streetview ici)... Et si je trouve d'autres cartes postales du même lieu, je mettrai à jour cet article, histoire de suivre l'évolution à travers les ages!
Edit 15/06/2011 : Ajout de la photo de 1930 (avec le bus)
Edit 22/07/2011 : Ajout de la photo de 1935
Edit 26/08/2011 : Ajout de la photo de 1967 (en couleurs)

Références :

• Villa El Djezaïr, construite en 1922, inscrite aux bâtiments historiques.
• Galerie du Casino, construite en 1926, inscrite aux bâtiments de France.
• Destruction du Glacier Belge : archives Nice-Matin du 14/08/2003 "Les travaux de démolition de l'ancien Glacier Belge à Juan-les-Pins ont repris depuis 10 jours. [...] Fin des travaux aujourd'hui"..
• Immatriculations des années 30-40

Yet another Juan-les-Pins postcard... From a graphic standpoint, it's not that interesting, not a lot details, as the colorization process masked many of them.

No, one this one, the back side is more interesting : this postcard was sent by Lieutenant J. Robinson, an american soldier then deployed here, to his parents in Baltimore (Maryland).

And the date sends a shiver through my spine : the US Army Postal Service stamps shows August 9th 1945.
That very same day, the Bockscar bomber (see nose art on the right) dropped the Fat Man atomic bomb onto Nagasaki, instantly killing 30.000, and many more later due to the effects of radiations...


War in Europe has only been over for 3 months, and Japan will surrender 6 days later, marking the end of WW2. The handwritten text has a different after taste in this context : Obvisouly, this soldier ignored everything about what was about to happen on the other side of the globe, and even if he had, the army censors verifier all letters against leaks.
At the same moment, Tsutomu Yamaguchi was in Nagasaki, just a few kilometers away from the hypocenter of the explosion. Three days earlier, he also was in Hiroshima on a business trip... He managed to survive both bombs ; he passed away a few months ago, last January.

The Fat Man type bomb was later tested on the Bikini atoll, which gave its name to the swimsuit I was telling you about recently, which was marketed as follow : "the bikini, the first anatomic bomb" (sic)...

It's been a long time... So this time, it's not one, but two postcards from Juan-les-Pins!
Yeah, yeah, I know, I turn mono-maniacal ; just another of my obsessive compulsive disorders!

Those are two pictures of center Juan-les-Pins' main crossroad : the "Carrefour de la Joie" ("Crossroad of Joy" : WTF?!) ; but, moreover, the two photos were taken merely under the same angle, one at daylight, the other at night! That's how I could make the above banner, overlaying both pictures... Giving this unreal result, where daylight shadows and kids in swimsuits meet night's men in suits and neon glowing lights... The right picture above (at night) is dated from 1958 on its back ; unfortunately no date for the left one (by day).
But looking at it closely, I found a poster announcing a concert on Saturday September 1st ; and September 1st was a Saturday in 1951, '56, and '62 only. Based on the vehicles we can see (lots of american cars, Renault 4 CV, Vespa and Lambretta scooters, Fiat 500), I believe the picture was taken in 1956...
Note, on the night picture, a Rumi Formicchino parked along the sidewalk on the right... Quite rare!

Identical angle and two years difference for these two pictures, one of which travelled to Belgium, to end up on my desk half-a-century later... And finally be scanned and posted to the Internet. Wow...

Hey, there's a sign announcing the Crazy Horse's Strip-Tease Girls at the Casino... Damn, 52 years late!

Juan les Pins, 60's...
Everything has changed, and at the same time, everything's the same.
In the end, only the girls have really changed, leaving the class and sexy fashion from the sixties for the disgusting flesh and silicon market of the 3^rd millenium... Times change!
To listen while looking at this picture : Dany Logan, "Mon cœur à Juan les Pins"...

Edit 18/04/2007 :
Till now I only had a partiel scan of this photo... I come back today on this picture (original article from 2006/09/30), as I finally found the original post card (thanks to eBay, as usual!)!


The card has been send on August 20^th 1967. Dauphine and DS populated the streets, a big "Fly TWA" sign was above the Crystal... The GrandMarnier on the left still exists, as well as the LunaPark on its right side, which has became a place full of noisy, blinking arcade games... I imagine that by that time, it was full of Flippers!

Yet another vintage postcard found on eBay... I've been seeking it for a while, and I finally got it! A pure marvel, with a shiny Karmann-Ghia Low-Light as guest star...
Having a closer view to the picture, I discovered it was black and white, then colorized added later on. The sky, so perfect, is a fake : under high magnification, it appears that the original sky has been cut off and replaced by this blue shaded background! The vintage Photoshop retouching...
There's no indicated date, but referring to the ID plates (most recent is DL 06) I assume it's been taken around 1956. The poster on the Casino announces the election of the Reine des Fleurs de la Riviera (the Riviera's Queen of Flowers) on Saturday June 23^rd. In 56 only, June 23^rd was a Saturday, which confirms the year. Due to the light and the way people are dressed, we can guess the picture was taken in May-June 1956...


Half a century later, the Crystal bar is still at the same place, the book store as well... The Eden Beach Casino, on the right, unfortunately turned into a huge glass-covered building, throwing shadow on the street from the middle of the afternoon...

In the far background, the Hotel Provencal was still in activity ; the yellow-earth color of the top is a colorization mistake, it was pure white. This beautiful, huge building was built in 1927, and was one of the most important palaces on the Riviera. It then was abandoned in the mid-seventies, and it's nothing but a giant ruin today. A renovation project has been set up to turn it into luxury lofts, but there's been so many projects already... wait'n'see...

Dany Logan, "Mon cœur à Juan les Pins" (My heart in Juan les Pins), July 1961.



Deliciously kitsch, no? The most attentive of you won't have missed the Lambretta LD in the background...

Juan les Pins, March 1977... Looks more or less like nowadays... You probably didn't miss the convertible Karmann-Ghia on the left, hum?

I love those old pictures... Here are 2 postcards found on eBay, both written in May 1959.

This street is almost identical today, but the atmosphere has changed... Obviously, cars are not the same, but above all Third Millenium tourists are way more soaking of solar cream and silicon, and wants more out of his money... He becomes more and more demanding, which draws him not to respect the environment anymore (already highly impacted in the area), treating everybody like sh...

As a fair return, local restaurants, making their annual revenue over 2 months, are proposing not-that-fresh meals, as they don't need the client to come back later... One way or another, the client won't come back anyway!

That's sad, that's very sad.
Architecture is still the same, but the spirit is a bit gone... Strange feeling to miss a period I did not even know myself, uh?

Click on the pictures to see them full size...



Edit 2008-03-20 : same place, nowadays, on Flickr...