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Mougins

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Mougins
The Village
The Village
Coat of arms of Mougins
Coat of arms
Location of Mougins
Map
CountryFrance
RegionProvence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur
DepartmentAlpes-Maritimes
ArrondissementGrasse
CantonMougins
Government
 • Mayor (2014–2020) Richard Galy
Area
1
25.64 km2 (9.90 sq mi)
Population
 (2012)
17,884
 • Density700/km2 (1,800/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+01:00 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+02:00 (CEST)
INSEE/Postal code
06085 /06250
Elevation32–269 m (105–883 ft)
1 French Land Register data, which excludes lakes, ponds, glaciers > 1 km2 (0.386 sq mi or 247 acres) and river estuaries.

Mougins (pronounced [mu.ʒæ̃]) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France.

It is located on the heights of Cannes, in the district of Grasse. Mougins is a 15-minute drive from Cannes. The village is surrounded by forests, such as the Valmasque forest. In the village there are pines, olives, and Cyprus trees.

History

File:Mougins.JPG
Mougins dans les Alpes-Maritimes

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 and Jacques Brel, to name but a few. Pablo Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life living in Mougins (1961–1973), where he died. He 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) which is another important restaurant in the heart of the old village. Fetisson moved to Mougins in April 2010 having just been the head chef at the two-Michelin Star restaurant, Le Cheval Blanc, in Courchevel just prior. Like Ducasse, Fetisson worked at L'Amandier in his early career before returning to Mougins again in 2010.

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.

Population

Historical population
YearPop.±%
17931,330—    
18001,500+12.8%
18061,538+2.5%
18211,724+12.1%
18311,962+13.8%
18361,883−4.0%
18411,918+1.9%
18461,828−4.7%
18511,831+0.2%
18561,805−1.4%
18611,752−2.9%
18661,677−4.3%
18721,652−1.5%
18761,694+2.5%
18811,678−0.9%
18861,581−5.8%
18911,548−2.1%
18961,657+7.0%
19011,599−3.5%
19061,541−3.6%
19111,770+14.9%
19211,800+1.7%
19262,800+55.6%
19313,400+21.4%
19363,270−3.8%
19463,210−1.8%
19543,851+20.0%
19625,274+37.0%
19686,346+20.3%
19758,492+33.8%
198210,197+20.1%
199013,014+27.6%
199916,040+23.3%
200819,703+22.8%

Economy

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.

Personalities

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.

Cultural facilities

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.

Education

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

Mayors

Identity F. Tajasque Laumbre-Delanoy J. Sauvan André Bailet Maillan Roger Duhalde Richard Galy
Period 1904–1905 193?–195r 195?–196? 196?–196? 196?–1970 1970–2001 2001–2020
Political party Gaullist RPR UMP

Twin towns

Mougins is twinned with:

See also

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mougins.
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Mougins.
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