History - Mougins

Mougins has a strong culinary history, with L'Amandier being right at the centre of it. One of the greatest chefs of the 20th century, Roger Verge, owned the restaurant for over twenty years, while also training another of the world's greatest contemporary chef's, Alain Ducasse, who worked for Roger Verge in Mougins from 1977-1981, and ultimately worked as a chef at L'Amandier.

Mougins also hosts the 'Les Étoiles de Mougins', an international gastronomic event taking place every year in the village.

The hilltop of Mougins has been occupied since the pre-Roman period. The building of L'Amandier itself, also has an extraordinary past. Nestled within the ramparts of the ancient medieval village of Mougins, it was originally used as the courthouse of the region, as in the 11th century the Count of Antibes gave the Mougins hillside to the Monks of Saint Honorat (from the nearby monastery on the Îles de Lerins just off the coast of Cannes) who who used the village to administer the surrounding region until the French Revolution. The first floor of L'Amandier is still known as 'Les Salles des Moines'. 

Around the corner, the internationally award-winning Mougins Museum of Classical Art, was the village prison. By the 19th century, both of these buildings had become mills, pressing flowers grown on the hillsides of Mougins, to supply rose, jasmine and lavender oil for the famous perfumeries of the nearby village of Grasse.

In modern times, Mougins has been inhabited and frequented by many artists and celebrities, including Pablo Picasso, Jean Cocteau, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, Man Ray, Arman, Elizabeth von Arnim, Yves Klein, César Baldaccini, Paul Éluard, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Winston Churchill, Catherine Deneuve, Édith Piaf, Jacques Brel, and others.

Pablo Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life living in Mougins (1961-1973), where he died, having lived and worked in his house beside the Chapel of Notre-Dame-de-Vie, which he had bought from the Guinness family. It was at this house, where Winston Churchill would also spend his later years visiting and painting in the 1950's.