"For centuries Nice slumbered beside the Mediterranean in beautiful serenity - an amalgam of French, Italian, and Provencal cultures built over tantalizing classical ruins. Then, in the mid-eighteenth century, English traveler Tobias Smollett exalted the splendors of Nice in a bestselling travel chronicle - and overnight, high society descended. Jefferson visited the city, F. Scott Fitzgerald partied in its seaside villas, and both Nazis and Jews took refuge there during World War II. Though the rich and famous now often turn elsewhere, Nice remains the queen of the Riviera: seductive, complex, stylish, dazzling in its light and loveliness. "--BOOK JACKET.