Just back from a wonderful concert starring Tracy Chapman.  About 5 minutes from our hotel, The Meridien, there's a park full of beautiful pine trees.  You guessed it--Pins means pines.  At night, it's magical.  The stage is set up so that the artist is in front of you and you get a view of much of the
Cote D'Azur coastline, and of course, the water in front of you.

As Tracy sang "I am yours....if you are mine..." a sleek sailboat, masts strung with golden lights, docks gently at the beautiful Belle Rives Pier. (More about Belle Rives soon).  The pine trees shiver with a shift of the wind...the audience claps warmly as Tracy lifts her harmonica to her lips for the beginning of "Sub City".  A few bars later, her voice raises clear into the Southern sky, and you believe every syllable as her voice spins into the clouds.  The acoustics are brilliant. So often, the sound in not right at large events...but tonight it's absolutely perfect, and the audience is giving as much as Tracy is.

The lights of the marina the next town over twinkle in the distance...on the way to Saint Tropez.  Babies and toddlers play on blankets just beyond the fence..within perfect hearing distance.
I'm struck by the gentleness of Tracy's voice, her perfect diction, the interesting emphasis she puts on certain parts of words and sentences, that androgynous voice and her open face making her completely unique.

At the center of it all are her lyrics:  poignant, straight-forward, and striking.  The audience recognizes and applauds each song with just the first few notes of each intro.  They don't want to let her go, and they stomp their feet on the metal risers. It is deafening.  I would love to hear her do a set with Lenny Kravitz some day!

Spent some time in the press area speaking to journalists from around the world.  It was heartening that of around 200 journalists covering this jazz festival, almost all of them made it a point to go to the New Orleans dinner last night. It's really important to journalists as well as musicians to recognise the important of New Orleans as certainly one of the most important jazz heritage spots on Earth.  Nice to see them all pitching in to try to help the recovery.

Earlier in the day there was a real treat.  I hope that if you ever get to this part of France that you'll go to a pllace called the Hotel Belle Rives. It's just a few steps from the Jazz A Juan festival site, and well worthe the short walk.  The historical site of the Belle Rives, (which means "beautiful shore") located on the seashore of the Cap D'Antibes, is the very place to share the French Riviera way of life.

Created in 1929, the hotel was formerly called the "Villa St. Louis", and if that sounds familiar to you, it's becuase it was the residence of the American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda in the 1920's.  Yep--the very spot where he began writing "Tender is the Night."  As a matter of fact, the exquisite bar inside the hotel is called "Fitzgerald's" and it's one of the nicest spots to have a drink you can find anywhere.  Or, have your martini (or your iced tea) on the patio, where you can listen to the live piano player as the waves lap the shore and you watch the boats float by.  And the very location where F. Scott and Zelda held their legendary parties....with the Duke Ellingtons and the Picassos, Cole Porter, Rudolf Valentino and the royalty of all the art worlds...and the jet set of the modern world.

It's a delight to all the senses, sitting there in that carefully renovated art deco setting amidst the pines, watching the water and realising it's the very same light that captivated the Impressionist painters....and the hearts of American sportsmen!  Prior to people like the Fitzgeralds discovering Juan Les Pins, people really didn't bathe much in the water...if at all.  They wore clothes from the neck on down and large hats to protect themselves from the sun.  Then the Americans came, and in typical American fashion said:  "Hey!  That water looks refreshing...let's get IN it!"  And they did. Not only did they kick off their clothing and start a bathing craze in the Jazz Era, they also invented waterskiing.  At this very spot, at the Belle Rives!  So of course, before I leave, in the spirit of the Jazz Age, the Fitzgeralds and Cole Porter's irreverent tunes, I'm going back to Belle Rives to do some waterskiing.  (When in Rome.....)

A few years after the extraordinary Fitzgeralds moved from the villa, it became a hotel, borne of the imagination of a Russian hotelier couple named Boma and Simone Estene, who moved to Antibes and put their heart and souls into creating a magical destination for travelers from America and Europe
while raising three children, who took over the management of the hotel.

A member of the third generation of this family, Marianne Estene-Chauvin, is now the proud owner/operator of the establishment and she told me moer about what had happened at this villa.  Of course, during World War II, the Italians took over much of the private property on the Cote D'Azur, and he Belle Rives was no exception.  The place fell into disrepair during the war years, and when it was safe to return,  Boma Estene found he had quite a job ahead of him...to retain ownership of his property, and then to try to get it into some reasonable shape again.  The Germans had dumped enormous rocks into the bay in front of the hotel to make it impossible for boats to arrive without getting damaged. Being enterprising, Boma decided to take hire big boats and drag all of those rocks together and form a pier out of them.  That pier remains intact today and  is a private jetty for waterskiing and for berthing private boats.  Genius!  The man took lemons and made lemonade, and his granddaughter has much the same spirit in the way she improves the property; creating a spa-like atmosphere with generous white awnings, gorgeous deco furniture, oriental parasols and nouvelle cuisine.  It really is a must-see while you're in Antibes.  And a must-ski, for that matter! :)

On your way out, don't miss the one and only marble plaque in Europe bearing F. Scott Fitzgerald's name and quote that hangs on the wall in the foyer.  It reads:

"With our being back in a nice villa on my beloved Riviera (between Cannes and Nice) I'm happier
   than I've been for years.

   It's one of those strange, precious and all too transitory moments when everything in one's
   life seems to be going well."

   ---F. SCOTT FITZGERALD,
       March 15, 1926
       Juan-Les-Pins

So, if you're ever in this "neck", stop by the Belle Rives for tea on the patio overlooking the sea. make sure to brush up on your Cole Porter and Fitzgerald novels before you go for the maximum impact!
And don't forget your water shoes, in case you're tempted to take a spin around the inlet at the birthplace of waterskiing!