Chanel's Riviera: Glamour, Decadence, and Survival in Peace and War, 1930-1944

If you want to read a book about Coco Chanel. This isn't for you. This is a chopped up name dropping gossip column of who was in the French Riviera in the 1920s and the following decades. Ed very disappointing.

Coco Chanel, the revolutionary French fashion designer, cultivated friendships with the rich and famous. By the time she launched her eponymous perfume "Chanel No. 5, she was a wealthy woman. In 1929, Chanel purchased a home on the Côte d'Azur, (the French Riviera), in the small village of Roquebrune. It was the first time in her life she would live according to her own rules and wishes at "La Pausa," the property she transformed from dilapidated buildings into a beautifully designed villa. Chanel knew, and was known by the wealthiest most powerful people of the day as well as all of the famous and infamous artists and authors (from the Prince of Wales, Churchill, and Picasso to Jean Cocteau and everyone in between). This book not only follows her social connections from 1930 with her friends and business associates, but also the lives of people living in France through the German invasion, (four million people fled Paris in 1938), through September 1944 when Chanel was questioned by "Le Comite d'epuration" as a possible Nazi collaborator. (The "Epilogue" encapsulates Chanel's life from 1949 to her final collection in the spring of 1971.) Coco Chanel was an independent, talented, generous woman who is portrayed as an opportunist. She had a long relationship with a German intelligence officer, Baron Hans Günther von Dincklage, who was 13 years her junior. It was, according to some, a true love affair, that may also have been motivated by Chanel's desire to get her nephew freed from an internment camp. Through Von Dinklage and his connections, Chanel was able to help others gain their freedom during the German occupation.This is an astonishingly well written and researched history of Coco Chanel, based on interviews, diaries, journals and the historical record, covering in depth the deprivations suffered by the French during World War 2. A good portion of this is about the hardships and survival of regular folks, the hunting, rounding up, imprisonment (and death) of Jews, those in the resistance, and those caught in the crossfire. As one might expect, the wealthiest often survived without too much hardship, and ate well, thanks to the availability of food on the black market, while the poor starved and went without the basics. Many, on the Côte d'Azur, who had the means, escaped to Lisbon and from there to the United States or England. Those without money barely survived; many didn't. There are many fascinating episodes in Chanel's life that are brought to life in this history. In one of them, in late 1943 or early 1944 Chanel arrived in Madrid to broker a peace treaty between Churchill and the Germans. (Called "Operation Model Hat," but it wasn't successful. Churchill and Chanel had been acquaintances since dining together with mutual friends on the Riviera in the late '30s.) This book gives the reader a total-immersion experience of life on the French Riviera from the 1930s on, and a profound knowledge of Coco Chanel.

Everything you could want to know about the life on the Riviera during WWII and among the celebrities living there. Coco Chanel was at the peak of her career and living among many prominent people while the Jewish population was being rounded up and shipped out. And the Italians were protecting them ... who knew? This book is a really good read!

A very poorly written book . . . there is no story line, just a lot of name dropping. It is as if the author Googled "Riviera" and the dates Chanel had a house there, and then listed all the people who moved in and out of the area and how many affairs they had and with whom. The author is also very critical of people's physical appearance--if they were not rail thin they are criticized severely and rudely. I had hoped for a book about Coco Chanel, but this had very little to do with her. This book is not even worthy of donating to our local library--we threw it away.

I first discovered Anne de Courcy's biography of Anthony Armstrong- Jones. She made him a real flesh and blood person - warts and all. However, I was unprepared for the heart-pounding story contained in: Chanel's Riviera. I read it in 3 sittings. At first, one sees the flashy, uber- wealthy living it up lavishly in 1930 on the French Riviera as WWII is about to unfold. Then, bit by bit, the intensity builds as Hitler, his demonic German henchmen plus Vichy, Petain,plus a multitude of French citizen collaborators with the Nazis begin rounding up, betraying and eviscerating Jews.De Courcy has done phenomenal research - it is a terrifying scenario and one is "right there" as each horror intensifies. My view of Chanel totally was destroyed - she was most definitely, as described, an anti-semite and German collaborator. Yes, she was a talented, innovative designer who rose from being an orphan at a French convent who became a seamstress and clever fashion personage, but a total narcissist, devoid of most scruples. On occasion, she could be generous, but she was most happy with her Nazi lover during the war and beyond.Along the way, we do meet some heroic French citizens, who helped succor and shield their Jewish fellow Frenchcountry people. These we admire, of course - they were under tremendous, life and death perilous pressure. There are wonderfully descriptive ongoing diary entries of people like the Englishwoman, Elizabeth Foster non- Jewish- trapped alone in her Riviera apartment for more than 4 years, a hapless sufferer of the War's deprivations.Yet, we meet ultra famous, self-involved international artists, writers and socialites, who dined on caviar and drank champagne, built fantastic estates - all while starvation and brutality existed around them amid the glorious physical beauty of Nice and other Mediterranean Sea coastal towns.I promise you this is a "must read" - intelligent, informative and fascinating tale of an era that will stay with you.

This is a fun, gossipy and nostalgic story of life on the Riviera among the very rich, and aristocratic. Yes there are many names dropped, but it’s a story of a vanished life of hedonism, wealth, and very little morality, nor awareness of the growing war, or war crimes being perpetrated in other people’s lives. I love Chanel, and she definitely became a leader in culture and fashion on her own terms. She was pragmatic for her times. What other choices did a poor, illegitimate girl during her times have? She was charitable and generous with her friends, if not her workers. She also become a monster, by collaborating with the Nazis. I believe that she probably felt her collaboration was a pragmatic choice in order maintain her business during the war. She was a fascinating woman!

Well-written and much interesting information about Chanel, but there was a lot of extra padding, especially about the war years, which was just about acceptable as background information. Good photos.

The 2 books with different covers were exactly the same so I wasted my money on the second one

Subject is Coco Chanel a huge fashion figure set in 1930's Riviera . Conntext is delightful and describes background of glamourous big names of the day .