fan of, many times , not counting her concert I attended here, in the rst row, of course. In neighbouring Villefranche -sur-Mer she shot part of her lm “W.E.”, and a few sum- mers ago in the same place she rented the famous Villa Schianoia for her birth- day celebrations. Then one morning I saw in a newspaper that she’d dined with Elton John in one of the local restaurants while I was eating with company at a restaurant literally a hundred metres away. But I’m not one of those who hangs around the streets trying to see someone famous. On the TV there are regular features about that jet set and which celebrities have been noticed, whose yacht is berthed where (with Alek- sandra Nikolić Melnichenko’s‘Motor Yacht A’, as the most expensive in the world, at- tracting the most attention), and the place is gripped by a special celebrity fever dur- ing the Cannes Festival and the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix. If you want to meet Đoković, go for lunch at his vegan restau- rant in Monte Carlo during the Monte-Car- lo Masters tennis tournament. I once hap- pened to see Princess Stéphanie of Monaco on the terrace of the famous La Colombe d’Or Restaurant in the commune of Saint Paul de Vence. You’d actually be surprised at just how many places in Nice have people waiting for atableduringsummer.Sometimesthat’sbe- cause the restaurant has a good reputation, and sometimes it’s simply due to the fact that this city is swarmed annually by sev- eral million tourists – more than four, if I’m not mistaken. However, when it comes to wine and cheese, I don’t go out to a restau- rant. I like to enjoy sharp red wine, which I didn’t drink at all before France, and blue cheese, which I’d also never eaten before coming to France, either at home on the balcony or on one of the rocks of the Cap de Nice, while enjoying the sunset. Try some of the savoury pancakes made from chickpeas, which are a kind of local speciality called ‘Socca’. They go well as an afternoon snack with a glass of cold ros é , but I prefer the ‘pain bagnat’, basical- ly soaked bread (in olive oil, and I also like a drop of lemon juice), which is the kind of sandwich I often end up buying at a bak- ery or making at home alone. It has all the ingredients I like – tomato, onion, boiled eggs, raw bell pepper, a little tuna or salt- ed sardines, radishes etc. My favourites beaches are: Plage Foss- es in St Jean Cap Ferrat, Plage de Passable, also in St Jean Cap Ferrat, the nudist beach in Cap-d’Ail, the beach in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, and I also love Plage des Sablettes in Men- ton, right next to the border with Italy, be- cause the old city of Menton behind it cre- ates a magically romantic atmosphere.
ry. And to study a period I always ignored, the 19 th and early 20 th centuries. It was here that I came to love and became nostalgic for Serbia’s monarchist past. Nathalie Petrovna Keschko, the future queen consort Natali- ja Obrenović of Serbia, came here to spend the winters with her family. Massena Muse- um, which is nestled in a beautiful location on the promenade and immediately oppo- site the famous Hotel Negresco, preserves in its archives records of the residence of Boži- dar Karađorđević, the most colourful Serbi- an prince, whose designs for jewellery are preserved in Paris’s Musée d’Orsay and the French National Archives. Also coming here regularly during the winters was his mother, Princess Sara ‘Sarka’ Karađorđević, the am- bitious daughter of the so-called “Danubi- an Rothschild”, Captain Miša Anastasijević. Crown Prince Danilo of Montenegro once had his own villa not far from Monaco that’s still considered one of the most beautiful on the Côte d’Azur and is today owned by Madlena and Philip Zepter. At one point dur- ing World War I, the entire Serbian parlia- ment found itself in Nice, and here my fa- mous fellow Kragujevac native, Field Marshal Radomir Putnik, who was given a magni - cent memorial service in the Russian church in Nice, which is known as the most beau- tiful Russian church beyond the borders of Russia. Also with his own villa in the hills of Nice was Dušan Popov, the Belgrader who inspired Ian Fleming to create the character of James Bond. And so I rummage around like that and discover and learn about all sorts of things, So, I am discovering some- thing and discovering everything, and I think I’ll bring it all together in a book. As for the jet set? Well, I’ve “bumped into”Madonna, who I’m actually a die-hard
Jahta A Aleksandre Nikolić Meljničenko kao najskuplja na svetu privlači najviše pažnje Nikolić Melnichenko’s ‘Motor Yacht A’, as the most expensive in the world, attracts the most attention Aleksandra
I’ve never seen anywhere else in the world. You’ll nd yourself awaited in the old town by the atmosphere of an Italian Med- iterranean town with a rich past (Nice was for centuries under the rule of the Duchy of Savoy). All that kitschy Italian baroque in numerous churches and chapels, colour- ful squares and a ower market. And in the modern city you’ll nd the the French sense of joie de vivre. Architectural beauty inspires me the most here. I’m an art historian and archi- tecture is one of my passions, and there’s enough beautiful architecture here to beau- tify at least three or four big cities. Another thing – and now you’ll be surprised – that Nice inspired me to study Serbian histo-
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