Saturday, April 10, 2010

Overcast -PhotoFriday

Hotel Negresco's famous dome on an overcast day.

This was taken a few weeks back when we had snow in Nice - very unusual weather for the South of France. Normally, we have blue skies most days, even in winter.

Nice and the South of France were originally winter holiday resorts as the  Victorians wanted to escape the dreary Northern winters.



The dome of the Negresco pictured here was supposedly designed by Gustav Eiffel but I'm not sure if that has ever been definitely proven. Edouard Niermans was the architect for the  whole hotel.

The luxury hotel opened in 1912 but was  requisitioned in 1914 and used as a war hospital for wounded WW1 soldiers  . The lack of high paying guests during the war  and the vast expenditure on the building work bankrupted  the original owner, Henri Negresco.

The Negresco Hotel is now classed as a Historic monument .


1 comment:

Magpie Magic said...

Lovely image - all misty and gorgeous colours and shapes.