Jean Cocteau Museum

The multi-faceted artist Jean Cocteau, who was a painter, poet, novelist, playwright and filmmaker created his own memorial in the seaside town of Menton in the 1950s when he discovered a 17th century fort (bastion in French) and was given permission to renovate it, adding floors and walls with his fanciful mosaics and niches to display his famous ceramics. It remains as a wonderful testament to the artist, however, in 2012, the town inaugurated a larger museum to honor Cocteau. The seafront building was designed by Rudy Ricciotti, a well-known “hedonist” architect, to be as Cocteau-like a structure as possible. The whimsical black and white façade has been described as a reflection of Cocteau’s obsession with dreams and reality and light and darkness. Within the building are exhibits revealing Cocteau’s many talents, from his early portraits to his Mediterranean ceramics and film clips from his famous Orpheus film trilogy as well as many photos, recordings and notebooks. Severin Wunderman’s collection constitutes the bulk of the collection and includes more than 1,800 pieces. In addition to 990 of Cocteau’s works, there are works of his contemporaries such as Picasso, Modigliani and Miró as well as a collection or works related to Sarah Bernhardt, one of Cocteau’s stars. For Cocteau fans, there is also a Cocteau chapel in Villefranche that was an old fisherman’s chapel that Cocteau decorated with religious themes in 1956.