Hardcover with dust jacket in great condition. No detectable damage, markings, or writing within the pages. In this history of the French Riviera town of Nice, Kanigel writes in a witty, humorous style of the settlement that has drawn travelers to its sun-kissed beaches since the time of the Roman Empire. The Nicois identity is part Italian and part French, but all residents enjoy a classless leisure and a common culture of pleasure. Nice has attracted the artistic and famous for centuries, as Kanigel notes with delightful tidbits of escapades and wild carnivals. The town's dark periods are noted as well. When Germany occupied France and the Vichy government was in place, French collaborators helped Nazis hunt down thousands of local and foreign Jews living in Nice. Jews were picked up at the very luxury hotels and beaches where they had been welcomed only weeks earlier and packed onto trains headed for the death camps. But the town recovered after the war, and travelers returned. Nice's support of the arts has always been constant as has the seductive promise of the beautiful tourist town that has something for everyone. Eileen Hardy