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...