When examining the evolution which the town of Menton experienced in the decades following its attachment to France in 1861, it would be remiss not to include the changes which resulted from the vast influx of upper-class Europeans, in particular the British, who sought out Menton near the end of the 19th century in the hopes of finding relief for tuberculosis other ailments. These visitors and the changes they brought with them are not directly linked to the “frenchification” of Menton. However, they would arguably have been unlikely to occur, had Menton not become French in 1861.
Source: https://www.riha-journal.org//articles/2012/2012-jul-sep/special-issue-neo-impressionism/woloshyn-colonizing-the-cote-dazur
In 1859, the British national Dr. Henry Bennett came to Menton, not for professional reasons, but as a sick man, looking for, in his own words to, “die in a quiet place”. After finding months later that rather than dying, his health was much improved, Bennett became convinced that the climate of Menton specifically was conducive to the healing of Tuberculosis and other respiratory ailments. He therefore set out to spread the word and help others afflicted by such illnesses. After two winters spent recovering in Menton, Bennett published “Mentone and the Riviera as a Winter Climate” in 1861. This work was published in 9 separate editions, even being translated into several different languages.
Source: Wikipedia
Henry Bennett, having already amassed a solid reputation in the medical fielded prior to his ailment, took it upon himself to explain the beneficial effects of Menton’s climate. He found the town’s geography, wedged so closely between the mountains and the sea, as well as its climate, characterized by relatively little rainfall and mild but not warm winters, to be beneficial to those suffering from respiratory illnesses. However, he did assert the caveat that seemed only to be the case for those with mild to moderate forms of the illness. In other words, those who were in sufficient health to enjoy the natural surroundings of Menton. Bennett even went so far as to consider these climatic features to be unique to the town of Menton, stating that even Nice is not a sheltered as Menton. This particular claim would later be questioned by other doctors, yet, the publication as a whole remained incredibly influential, and the tourism boom in Menton commenced practically overnight.
In contrast to its current tourism summer season, the early, health-related tourism in Menton was a winter phenomenon, as this was the season in which the town’s climate produced the health benefits hypothesized by Bennet. In the Fall, those afflicted would begin to pour into the town along with their families. By the 1880s the small town of Menton, which in 1861 had had only 3000 inhabitants, hosted an average of 600 families throughout the winter months. Furthermore, by 1890, the permanent population had grown to 11000. Those who came to Menton in this time, in addition to being afflicted by respiratory illnesses, also tended to be relatively wealthy and affluent, which allowed them to comfortably spend 8 months in the town, renting villas or hotel rooms.
Among the ill, affluent individuals who sought out Menton, were the historian John Richard Green, who passed away in the town in 1883; the artist Aubrey Beardsley, who passed away in Menton in 1898; the American, James Bruyn Andrews; the author Robert Lewis Stevenson, who was in the care of Dr. Henry Bennett himself ,and finally the author, Katherine Mansfield. Most famously, Queen Victoria of Great Britain visited Menton in 1882, as will be discussed later under ‘Monuments’, in the hopes of finding relief for her son Leopold’s hemophilia. Many of these patients would not see the recoveries they had hoped for, and instead, find themselves buried in the graveyard above the town. It is now known that the regional climate does not, in fact, have any medical benefits for those suffering from tuberculosis. However, at the time this was unknown, and the anecdotal successes, in addition to the pull of the beautiful small town, continued to attract new patients and increasingly, even healthy tourists, who were looking for a quieter destination, as opposed to the fashionable cities of Nice and Cannes.
Source:http://mp.natlib.govt.nz/detail/?id=3632
This boom in tourism following Menton’s attachment to France also had a marked influence on the infrastructure of Menton. Bennett’s methods for tuberculosis treatment focused particularly on the importance of hygiene. In this regard he found Menton to be lacking in 1860. In large part due to his advocation for sanitary advancements, the municipal government of Menton implemented various policies to improve the cleanliness of the city, and beyond this, to begin to build infrastructure, such as a new drainage system for sewage. This construction was reported on by the British Journal of Medicine, thereby indicating the significant connection between these improvements and the needs and desires of the medical tourists. In addition to these health-related changes to the city, the architectural changes related to tourism should not be forgotten. The creation and modernization of many Hotels and Villas were built in this time, quite literally expanding Menton’s reach, and are discussed under ‘Urbanization’.
Over the decades tourists began to visit Menton for reasons unrelated to its professed health benefits. Many of these tourists arrived simply out of a desire to enjoy its calm, beautiful nature, and by the 1920s its somewhat macabre past as a town filled with the ill and dying became little more than an interesting footnote on the history of one of the Riviera’s lesser-known resort towns. In this time, the town still remained a favorite of both nobility and artists, with authors such as Scott Fitzgerald and Vladimir Nabokov also being known to have spent time in Menton during this period, and, fact, find inspiration for their works in the city of Menton and its surrounding nature.
This strong shift towards a vastly more international town in the decades following Menton’s annexation into France may seem contradictory to the hypothesis of its frenchification. There is something to be said of the impact of this nature on the identity of the local population, though we, unfortunately, lack evidence coming directly from Mentonnais sources. What can be said, however, is that this tourism boom would not have been possible, had it not been for the support and resources of the French state. Frenchification, it then seems, was a prerequisite for all the developments that followed 1861. Menton was quite literally put on the map of southern France for potential tourists after its attachment to France and consequential opening up to wider audiences. The expansion of roads, the connection of Menton to France by the establishment of its railway and port, and even the construction of its the sewage system (which Dr. Bennett so strongly lobbied for) were all financed in some degree by France. This thereby allowed Menton to evolve from a poor fishing village to an expanding tourist destination. Additionally, the influx of tourists in the wake of annexation also encouraged this French involvement in the city by acting as an incentive for further investments. In conclusion, it is not fully possible to separate the tourism boom in Menton, starting in the 1860s, from its “frenchification”.
Frenchification of Menton 