Mougins

In modern times, Mougins has been frequented and inhabited by many artists and celebrities, including 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, Jacques Brel, and others. Pablo Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life living in Mougins (1961–1973), where he died and lived in a 'mas' (farmhouse) at Notre-Dame-de-Vie, which is a small hilltop just beside the old village of Mougins and next to the 12th-century chapel of the same name. Picasso's studio was in the old village in a building that is now the tourist office, while the studio of Fernand Léger was above what is now the village wine shop, next to the rear of the Mougins Museum of Classical Art (MACM).

Mougins has a strong culinary history with such great chefs as Roger Vergé and Alain Ducasse having managed restaurants in the village. Both were synonymous with the restaurant L'Amandier, which is situated in the heart of the old village. This restaurant still exists today and is housed in an important ancient building, as during the Middle Ages this was the court house of the Monks of Saint Honorat, before becoming an almond mill in the 18th/19th centuries. Denis Fetisson], who received the Jacquart Trophy for the Rising Star in Gastronomy in 2006, now manages L'Amandier and is also the manager and head chef at La Place de Mougins (previously Le Feu Follet, regularly frequented by Picasso).

Mougins hosts the annual 'International Gastronomy Festival of Mougins', or 'Les Étoiles de Mougins', an international gastronomic event taking place every September in the village.

Given its close proximity to Cannes, Mougins is also often the tourist destination for Hollywood stars during the Cannes Film Festival. Dame Elizabeth Taylor hosted the 'amfAR' AIDS Charity dinner for the Hollywood elite for almost 10 years until 2008.

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.

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  Memorial for Amédée-François Lamy
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  The Chapel of Our Lady of Life
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  The Chapel of St. Bartholomew
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  The Village Centre

During the 19th and early 20th centuries, the village was a centre of floral production, producing lavender, roses and jasmine for the perfumeries in nearby Grasse. Mougins is a living village, where both the ancient buildings and the 19th-century houses are inhabited as they have always been.

Commandant Amédée-François Lamy was born in Mougins in February 1858, and died at the Battle of Kousséri in Chad in April 1900. Fort-Lamy in Chad was named after him, but was renamed N'Djamena in 1973. The main 'Place' in the village is named after Commandant Lamy and the back-street village house that he was born in has a plaque to show where he lived.

The exile Volodymyr Vynnychenko, former Prime Minister of Ukraine, lived in Mougins from 1934 until his death in 1951.

Pablo Picasso died there on 8 April 1973 (aged 91).

The Musée d'Art Classique de Mougins (MACM) was opened in June 2011. It displays a private collection of around seven hundred two-thousand-year-old Roman, Greek and Egyptian antiquities which are shown alongside a collection of modern and contemporary art with a classical subject matter. Artists with classical works in the museum include Picasso, Matisse, Cézanne, Degas, Dalí, Dufy, Chagall, Derain, Lautrec, Yves Klein, Damien Hirst, Marc Quinn, Antony Gormley, Arman. It is the first time that ancient 2000- to 3000-year-old antiquities are displayed alongside modern artworks where one can observe the influence of the classics in the artists work. As well as modern artists being exhibited, there is a collection of period artworks including two paintings by Peter Paul Rubens and works by Michel Martin Drolling, Alessandro Turchi, Hubert Robert and Antoine Caron.

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  Museum's Facade
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  MACM by Night

Mougins School is an international school that was established in 1964. There is an elementary school "les cabrieres" and a middle school "les campelieres".

Mougins is twinned with:

• Aschheim, Germany
• Lerici, Italy

• Communes of the Alpes-Maritimes department
• Bernard Lancret
• Johann Michael Rottmayr
• Picasso

• INSEE

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mougins.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Mougins.

• Mougins Museum of Classical Art
• Page with photos of the old village of Mougins
• La Vigne de Pibonson is the only Wine producing estate in Mougins and one of only 3 in Alpes-Maritimes