CHAPTER 20
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LUCIA:
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THE NATURAL BEAUTY of the South of France was blinding. One came away as though touched by too much of the fierce sun, filled with wonder at the magical alchemy of bright, translucent air and shining sea and sky and light. The Post-Impressionists had migrated here to soak in the light, and splashed it vividly across their canvases to inspire the world to envy.
Had we come to the French Riviera before the First World War when the fashionable abandoned the South of France during the summer months, we could have had the Mediterranean to ourselves and enjoyed a recluse’s heaven. The war and the Americans changed all that.
Until Gerald Murphy (heir to the Mark Cross luxury leather goods company) and Sara Wiborg (of the wealthy Wiborg family and a printi
