Sarah Sapper, Cornelia Street Productions, MD & Executive Producer, the making of travelogue, Sandi Toksvig’s Great Riviera Rail Trip
Most TV shows about the French Riviera naturally focus on the glamour and luxurious lifestyles of the super-rich. There is, however, a lot more to this beautiful region than expense account restaurants and heliports and we really wanted to spend some of our time enjoying those other aspects too.
Firstly, we very much wanted to make this a rail trip. It’s such an easy yet spectacular train journey from end to end and you can hop on and off as you go to explore the many charming old towns that slope down to the sea. Each have their own distinct flavour, even though they are only a few miles apart.
Secondly, the stories and characters in those towns reveal the Cote D’Azur’s incredible cultural history and the plethora of great artists and writers that have been drawn to and inspired by this relatively short stretch of coastline, from Picasso to F Scott Fitzgerald to Bertolt Brecht. Indeed, their fame and allure really created the modern Riviera as the world’s great dream destination.
These two themes really excited us and we found the perfect person to explore them in Sandi Toksvig. Sandi collects both books and art and has an infectious passion for both. We went to places she really wanted to see, as a fan of these writers and artists and her sense of excitement on the shoot was very real. Gilded Age American writer Edith Wharton is one of her heroes and Sandi says it was one of the best days of her life when we took her through Wharton’s large and wonderfully preserved garden in Hyeres. Wharton, like so many of these artistic emigres, found a haven here, away from the repressive world of turn of the century New York society. Sandi’s a great art lover too and she was moved to tears when entering the chapel that Picasso had turned into his immersive mural ‘War and Peace’ in Vallauris.
Getting access to these places wasn’t as easy as you might think, in the rather security-conscious Riviera. In Monaco, for instance, you couldn’t move with a camera before the gendarmes were running over to see your permits. Where there’s wealth, there’s secrets, of course, but given there are iPhones twitching everywhere these days, you sometimes wonder why even tiny film crews can cause such a stir.
Our French producer, Gemma Lys Cooper, did a sterling job getting us into some amazing buildings. My favourite was the Villa Santo Sospir on the stunning peninsula of Cap Ferrat. Jean Cocteau, one of the great figures of the French avant-garde, literally covered all the walls in all the rooms here with sketches and paintings, so the house itself is one immersive work of art. The family who live there are working with the French authorities to see if it could be opened up to the public, but for now, it was a privilege to have such access to an amazing home.
Sticking to schedules was really important for a lot of these exclusive places, of course, as shooting windows could be short, so no pressure then on our two drivers. With parking sometimes very hard to find in these quaint old towns, thank goodness we went with locals, who did miracles in dropping us off precisely where we needed to film and then magically reappeared when we finished. The traffic police were hot, and I am afraid the number of traffic tickets we got for those drop-offs wasn’t pretty.
Everything ran smoothly and all the contributors were welcoming and generous with their time. The only other real challenge on the shoot was the weather. It was the hottest June ever recorded on the Riviera with temperatures reaching the high thirties, so climate change had struck again and it was undeniably tiring to work long days in that brutal heat. With a distinct lack of public water fountains, refilling our water bottles wasn’t always easy either! Fortunately, we kept the team and kit small, with shooting PD Luc Tremoulet and 2nd Camera AP Louis Catliff taking three cameras – 2 x FX6’s and 1 x FX3. It meant we could move and shoot fast and that agility was vital in a packed schedule.
Despite the heat and the tight schedule, the Riviera Rail Trip was a magical experience for us all. Aside from the history, we met a lot of people who make the place what it is today. Sandi did everything from a perfume creation workshop to assisting in the creation of a sculpture. If you had to pick a moment, maybe it was the crew meal at the end of our shoot in an organic rose vineyard near St Tropez. In the early evening light, the lovely winemakers served us plates of oysters to accompany the pink stuff. Who needs swanky hotels and Michelin starred restaurants after all?
Jon Creamer
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