The Riviera Secret with Sarah Steele

Submitted: 4th March 2026

The Riviera Secret with Sarah Steele

Talking about setting her novel on the glittering French Riviera in the dangerous days leading up to the outbreak of WW2.

The Riviera Secret Sarah Steele

OK, so I didn’t choose to write about an industrial estate on the outskirts of Bedford. Hands up: I picked a gem of a location for my sixth historical novel, and damn it if I didn’t have to go there for a deep-dive research trip.

Map for A Riviera Secret

Map for A Riviera Secret

The Côte d’Azur is well named for the blueness of its yacht-dotted sea, and this strip of coastline is home arguably to some of the most expensive real estate in the world. Think Monaco Grand Prix and the Cannes Film Festival, and you’re already getting the idea.

My trip in the spring of 2025 also provided some dramatic weather that was the perfect inspiration for my novel about a clifftop villa.

Map for A Riviera Secret

With its backdrop of snow-dusted mountains acting as counterpoint to the shimmering Mediterranean, the French Riviera has attracted the wealthy ever since it became the place to overwinter at the end of the nineteenth century. It was the arrival the Coco Chanel in the 1920s, however, that turned the Riviera into a glamorous summer haunt. For not only did Chanel introduce her famous beach pyjamas – she also introduced the suntan.

Map for A Riviera Secret

Suddenly beaches were crammed with the rich and famous, spilling out of eye-wateringly hotels such as the Negresco in Nice – it didn’t take too long for me to realise that that this venerable institution is well beyond the means of most modern writers.

Map for A Riviera Secret

My book does visit Nice and its famous Promenade des Anglais, and of course the stunning flower market, but Antibes is at the heart of the story. This beautiful fishing town beloved of Picasso and Somerset Maugham lies along the coast from the château in which the Duke and Duchess of Windsor set up their new court after his abdication. Its medieval towers still look out over the port and the warren of tiny streets and famous food market, where you can buy carnations fresh from the mountains, and mussels from the sea.

Eileen Gray house (c) Sarah Steele

Map for A Riviera Secret

I’ve long wanted to write a book in which a house forms the central character, and had in mind a stark white 1920s Modernist building built into the cliffs. An architect friend talked me to me about Eileen Gray’s iconic E-1027 villa along the coast from Antibes. This meant that I could create the perfect setting for my slightly gothic story of the women who live there. Not to mention the various tragedies that plague its reputation.

Map for A Riviera Secret

In the 1920s and 30s anyone who was anyone made the trip down on the Blue Train from Paris. Here. the Lost Generation of flapper girls and dilettantes partied ’til dawn at the many nightclubs and casinos littering the Cap d’Antibes. The arrival of the de la Victorine film studios in Nice secured the area’s reputation as the place to see and be seen.

Map for A Riviera Secret

One of the most famous regulars to the area was Winston Churchill. His penchant for gambling meant that he fled the Riviera for London at the outbreak of WW2 with his bill at the Monte Carlo Casino unpaid. One of the first things he did after the war was to return and settle his debts. Today, it is still possible to gamble at the same roulette tables, and crowds still gather to watch luxury cars offload visitors to the casino.

The Riviera Secret Sarah Steele

Map for A Riviera Secret

With the coming of war, my book ends, but that was not the end of the story for the Riviera. It continues to be a playground for the rich and sometimes infamous! A quick stroll around the marina at Antibes will quickly tell you that for some, a superyacht is just another toy.

Map for A Riviera Secret

Another famous resident of the Riviera was F. Scott Fitzgerald, whose Tender is the Night is set across the peninsula from Antibes, at Juan Les Pins. What author could refuse the opportunity a drink a glass of champagne at the Fitzgerald Bar of the *** Hotel, where he and Zelda stayed?