Nice little 40 page booklet from the Vence Syndicat d’Initiative (Tourist Office) from the 1950s with lots of information about the town.
This little book doesn’t have a date anywhere in it but it does mention the Matisse Chapel in several places so I’m going to place it from the early 1950s (since the Matisse Chapel was completed in 1951). It’s another publication from the Vence Syndicat d’Initiative, otherwise known as the Tourist Office.
Oddly enough the booklet includes absolutely no photographs, which is very strange for a publication that is trying to entice tourists to visit the area. There are a couple of hand drawn maps for the hikes, but no photos. It measures about 11cm wide by 15.5cm tall.
The main pitch here is the fact that Vence is a wonderful place to visit during all four seasons. In the Spring there are folk festivities including an Easter Battle of Flowers and Siege Mass as well as an international cycling time trial on a closed circuit. In the Summer the Feast of Saint Elizabeth and equestrian competitions. The Autumn features a variety of artistic, literary and sporting events. The Winter has a Provençal Midnight Mass, Offering of the Shepherds and Provençal Christmas Carols.
There are eleven pages with very detailed information about all the hotels, doctors, dentists, pharmacies, banks, cafés, garages, flower shops, electricians, paper goods stores, sporting good stores and much, much more. Nine detailed hikes (with maps) offer visitors the chance to see lots of the surrounding areas.
The book is divided into the following sections:
Introduction
The Water
Life in Vence
A History of the Area
Monuments, Landmarks and Hikes
Hotels
Pratical Information
A List of Businesses
At some point I plan to translate this book and create an English version of it and when I do I’ll post that version here for download as well. For now you can download it in its original French form.
Download a high quality PDF of this book (82mb)
Download a very good quality PDF of this book (8mb)
[click on any image to see sample pages]