A very surprising and charming village. It is located near Cannes. The village is surrounded by forests, such as the Valmasque forest. It has been inhabited by many artists and celebrites.. Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Arman, Yves Klein, César Baldaccini, Paul Éluard, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Winston Churchill, Catherine Deneuve, Édith Piaf and Jacques Brel.. just to name a few. Pablo Picasso lived in Mougins, where he lived and died. Pablo and Fernand Leger had studios in the old village next to where the current Mougins Museum of Classical Art (MACM) exists.

Mougins also has a strong culinary history with great chefs. Still standing is an ancient building, which during the Middle Ages this was the court house of the Monks of Saint Honorat. Mougins hosts the annual ‘International Gastronomy Festival of Mougins’, or ‘Les Étoiles de Mougins’, an international gastronomic event which takes place every September in the village.

Per wikipedia..

“The hilltop of Mougins has been occupied since the pre-Roman period. Ancient Ligurian tribes who inhabited the coastal area between Provence and Tuscany, were eventually absorbed into the spread of the Roman Empire and then became part of an official Ligurian state that was created by Emperor Augustus (X Regio). The Ligurian area withstood several invasions during the Byzantine period, before the City of Genoa took firm control over the Ligurian region and dominated it between the 11th and 15th centuries. Much of the centre of the ‘old’ village dates back to this period.”

“In the 11th century the Count of Antibes gave the Mougins hillside to the Monks of Saint Honorat (from the nearby Îles de Lerins just off the coast of Cannes) who continued to administer the village until the French Revolution. During this period, Mougins was a fortified village surrounded by ramparts and parts of the medieval city wall still exist as well as one of the three original ancient gate towers (Porte Sarrazine). During the 18th century War of the Austrian Succession, the village was plundered by the Austro-Sardinian armies and damaged by fire. Following this, some of the ramparts were deconstructed and several new little streets of early 19th-century houses were built.”

Take care.. Bisou Bisou