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Baptistine & Paul Roux

When Paul and Baptistine Roux opened the Robinson, later to become the Colombe d'Or, they never imagined that their humble inn would one day become a veritable institution...
In the early 1920s, Paul Roux, the son of a village farmer, opened a café-restaurant called Le Robinson, where the villagers could eat a pan-bagnat or slice of pissaladière and dance to the sound of a pianola.
In 1932, when Paul and Titine Roux transformed Le Robinson into a modest inn with four rooms, they also changed its name to Colombe d’Or. It offered a warm welcome, particularly to the artists who started to frequent Saint-Paul de Vence between the two World Wars. The motto was "Welcome here on foot, on horseback or on canvas!" That set the tone! Paul Roux became friends with the artists and was introduced to the world of painting. Matisse, Léger, Picasso, Calder, Braque and Marc Chagall became regulars at the Colombe d'Or, and Paul Roux used their works to decorate the dining room and garden of the Colombe d’Or. Within the space of a few years, it became a world-renowned "inn-museum".

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Aimé & Marguerite Maeght

Art gallery owners and art dealers Aimé and Marguerite Maeght moved to Saint-Paul de Vence in the 1950s. In their Parisian gallery they exhibited grand masters such as Matisse, Bonnard and Braque, as well as promising youngsters including Giacometti and Calder...
The Maeght bought a property in Saint-Paul de Vence in the early 1950s and named it "Mas Bernard" after their son, who died in 1953 aged only 11. Aimé and Marguerite Maeght were floored by this tragedy. But encouraged by their artist friends, they decided to embark on an incredible project that would help them pick up their lives. Aided by Georges Braque, as well as other artists, they created an art foundation in Saint-Paul de Vence. Inaugurated in 1964, it was designed by Catalonian architect Josep Lluis Sert with some of the artists: Giacometti, Miro and Braque, for example, laid claim to the gardens – the former setting his sculptures in the courtyard, the second designing a maze intertwined with nature, and the third adding a huge pond with a mosaic of fish on the bottom.
For over 40 years, the Fondation Maeght has contributed to Saint-Paul de Vence's reputation for culture and art.
Aimé and Marguerite Maeght repose in the village cemetery.

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Théo Tobiasse

Théo Tobiasse would have turned 90 in 2017.Born in Israël of Lithuanian origin, his family found exile in Paris when he was 5. Drawn to the Côte d'Azur by its light in 1950, he went on to buy a house in Saint-Paul in 1975. His home/art studio faced the ramparts, the light and the open skies, ans scenery immortalised by artists past.
"Sculpting paintings, painting sculptures and colouring light to reflect a perpetual metamorphosis". 

Jean Michel FOLON expose ses oeuvres au chateau Sainte Roselyne aux Arcs sur Argens.

Jean-Michel Folon

"Saint-Paul is a big part of my life," Jean-Michel Folon used to say. The Belgian artist visited the village many times over a period of thirty years...
Jean-Michel Folon discovered the village of Saint-Paul de Vence in the middle of the 1970s thanks to his friend César. The sculptor, a regular in the village, introduced Folon to the Roux family at the Colombe d'Or and Folon painted the colourful sign that is still hanging above the entrance. It depicts a big golden dove flying above the village. In 1979, he worked in the village illustrating the entire œuvre of Jacques Prévert, a gigantic task entailing several volumes.
It is hardly surprising therefore that the town council asked Folon to decorate the inside of the White Penitents' Chapel. The artist agreed enthusiastically, keen to leave something to the village. In what was to be one of his last projects, he created a colourful and poetic décor. Sculptures, paintings, stained glass windows and a mosaic harmoniously grace the chapel's walls and ceiling.
Jean-Michel Folon died in March 2005. He is buried in Monaco, where he settled in 1983.

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