TEE QUEEN IN THE RIVIERA.

Waikato Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1551, 13 June 1882, Page 4

TEE QUEEN IN THE RIVIERA.

Her Majkstjt has put the copestone on the prosperity of Mentone. Much to her chargrid^it ia ibeirig inundated by her' irrepressible countrymen ' and subjects. The enterprising Cook is arranging, I believe, for V specially conducted excursion at Easter. ' Poor little Mentone was halfEnglisn before) but it will be hereafter wholly . given/ over to John. Bull— his Murray! his red umbrella, and his eyeglass. , Hy6res, Cannes/ and all the other invalid resorts in the Rivieri, are desolate with envy of the quondam republic .of fishermen . Th c latter are not correspondingly elated by their good fortune. It is a peculiarity of these places, which in the past few years have been raised in spite of themselves from petty unknown hamlets to the splendour of fashionable watering plrces. that they are seldom grateful. The first invaders of Mentone, as of Cannes, > secured a decidedly cold welcome. The peasents took note only of the fact that their young olive-trees were being trampled down, and that little respect was paid to the low iriud walls ' round their vineyards, which hitherto had been a sacred boundary. Since the invaders set about building villas and hotels, and paying as much for the site of a single house as half the village might have been bought for a few years back, local prejudices have been mollified. The Queen is, from this point of view, a benefactress of incalculable importance. The stimulus that has been given to hotels and villas will last for years, and it will be long before Mentone has reaped the full harvest now being sown in it. All accounts agree that it ib a charming place. One might spend a whole year in it, and take a fresh walk every day. The drive of twenty miles to Nice along the famous Corniche road, built by Napoleon the Great on the line the old Roman road is one of the enjoyments of the season.