Some Photos of Mougins

Click on any of the photos to enlarge. If the formatting is off it's because Blogger is horrible.

Good view of the old village from the road to Antibes. Much of the description below comes from HERE.

The village of Mougins has been occupied since Roman times. Much of it dates back to the fifteenth century when it was the property of the Monks of Saint Honorat from the nearby Iles de Lerins just off the coast of Cannes. Many of the Abbey’s old properties are now private villas that are rented to tourists during the Cannes Film Festival and the summer months. Although Mougins was originally a fortified village surrounded by ramparts, no trace of this remains except one of the old gates to the village (the "Porte Sarrazine"). The village remains unspoiled despite the radical changes going on all around it and some people say that it looks so perfect that it resembles a film set.

Tiles painted to show a map of the old village. Most old villages in Provence have a map like this at or near the entrance to the village.

The village is renowned for its restaurants and for the many celebrities that have lived there over the years including Man Ray, Yves Saint Laurent, Catherine Deneuve and of course Pablo Picasso.

Two pictures of the main square in Mougins, called Place Commandant Lamy, which is surrounded by restaurants and art galleries.

People come from all over France and the world to visit the village’s many excellent restaurants, the most well known being Le Moulin de Mougins, which is located in an old mill just outside the village and is regarded by many as one of the top restaurants in France.

Several hundred years ago this "lavoir", or public wash basin, was a primary gathering place for the women of the village, who came here to wash clothes and discuss the goings on of the day with their neighbors. The lavoir is now an exhibition space for paintings and sculptures.

The church of Notre Dame de la Vie ("Our Lady of Life") just outside Mougins. Dave is obsessed with old churches so it's surely a matter of time until we take a tour.

The oldest part of Mougins: the Porte Sarrazine, built about 600 years ago. What remains of it is shown in the upper left portion of the picture: the cobblestone wall with the rounded doorway, set between the (newer) stucco buildings.

Just inside the main entrance to Mougins today.

These last three photos are of some of the restaurants, art galleries, and winding streets of Mougins. Today the old village doesn't really offer any jobs or industry. And I think fewer than a thousand people actually live inside the village walls. It's really just a place to have lunch or dinner and to tour around. For the most part cars aren't allowed in the old village, so you can stroll through the streets as you wish. It's an incredibly tranquil place.