Historic Sainte

Historic Sainte Marie-Madeleine Church he collected their art, some in exchange for accommodation and meals, some he purchased. It’s a most extraordinary private collection. In the town there are numerous artists from painters, including Jean-Philippe Ghiglione, famous for his crimson poppy art (and a very welcoming resident!), ceramicists, jewellers, sculptors, and more. Pop into the little Museum of History and Ceramics to admire a superb collection of jars. It wasn’t just the Romans who made use of the clay here, the town was a centre of jar making from the 1500s to the end of the 19 th century. The museum also houses a fabulous collection of ceramic indoor fountains (entertainment before TVs!). Biot is also famous for its glass-blowing - with four glass factories at the foot of the old village. The oldest of them, the Verrerie de Biot was Bubble glass at Verrerie de Biot founded in the 1950s by Eloi Monod, an engineer who mastered the art of glass making and, finding an impurity in a piece of glass, turned it on its head and invented bubble glass. They have a fabulous workshop where you can watch master glass blowers turn balls of glowing glass into delicate goblets and luminous sculptures (it takes at least 10 years to master the art of bubble glass). There are some 200 different models, each individual piece is checked by an expert known as “the eye” to ensure they are perfect. There’s a fantastic shop full of things you will want to take home, including tableware that glows in the dark and looks as if the sun of southern France has been trapped in the glass! There’s also a fascinating museum of glass, showcasing the evolution of the craft. And there is the International Glass Art Centre where the most amazing glass artworks by the world’s most prominent glass artists, are on display with a new exhibition each year. It was the arty vibe of Biot that captivated Fernand Leger in the 1950s. Born in Normandy, Leger was a painter, sculptor and film maker; he also founded the Academy of Modern Art in 1924 in Paris. In 1949 he founded a small ceramic workshop in Biot, and a few months before his death in 1955, bought a villa at the foot of the village. His wife Nadia Khodasevich Léger decided to build a museum where the workshop was, as a tribute to Leger. The Musée National Fernand Léger opened during the Cannes Film Festival in 1960 under the patronage of Picasso, Braque and Chagall, the first modern art museum in the French Riviera. Nadia donated the land, the villa next to it and more than 300 artworks to the state which took over the museum. Leger’s Restaurant and Hotel Les Arcades past waterfalls, old mills, and traces left by the Romans. I stayed at the Hotel Les Arcades in the Place des Arcades. The 15 th century building has the most extraordinary rooms - mine had a 4-poster bed, ancient fireplace and an air of antiquity you only get from the real thing. There’s a lovely little restaurant downstairs, its tables spilling into the street. And in the cellar is a secret that’s revealed to guests. Artist Jean-Philippe Ghiglione, famous for his poppies at his Biot studio Many artists and writers have fallen under the spell of Biot. Les Arcades restaurant, once a tabac owned by André Brothier in the early 1950s was sought out by Fernand Leger to accommodate the artists working with him, and Brothier transformed the building into a hotel and restaurant welcoming many artists over years, from Picasso to Chagall - and The Musée National Fernand Léger Watch master glass blowers create luminous 26 | The Good Life France sculptures at Verrerie de Biot The Good Life France | 27