Our family holidays in the south
IN May 1965 our daughter Alison, with my original wife and I, boarded a BEA One Eleven jet aircraft at Elmdon Airport to join my parents, Eric and Connie, who were already on holiday at Juan-les-pins in the South of France.
It was a fabulous day as we alighted the aircraft stairs in Nice and we stepped out across the tarmac to the airport buildings. Eric and Connie had their car to take us along the coast on that beautiful summer day on the road to Juan-les-pins.
The first time that I had been to Villa Donettella, Juan-lespins in the Cap da’ ntibes had been in July 1958, with my parents. We travelled on a BEA Vickers Viscount, four engine turboprop airliner from Elmdon Airport at Birmingham to Cannes Airport in the South of France. We had to be with my elder bother Tony who was in hospital at Cap da’ ntibes, having had a recent operation for removing his appendix.
Tony had set out for the south of France with his school friend Fred Rissbrook, in Fred’s beautiful red Austinhealey 100/6 type BN6, twoseater touring sports car. Fred was one of the sons of the owner of Devitts Ltd, the general hauliers of Bilston Road, Wolverhampton. Fred and Tony had motored down on a long drive to the south of France, stopping for a cooling drink at a pavement café in Cannes. They were looking at a local map, trying to sort out a place to stay, when two young Italian lads from a boat moored in the bay, interrupted saying in broken English, “You could not do better than trying Madame Marcos, at Villa Donettella, on the Chemin de Fer in Juan-les-pins.”
She was a Russian lady, a most obliging person, and very clean and inexpensive. She was reputed to be quite high up in the Romanov family, the leading members of which were Tsar Nicholas II and his consort Princess Alix of Hesse.
In 1923 Lydia Marcus, who became Madam Marcus, became involved with the Soviet authorities, who were trying to arrest her due to her being a part of the Romanov family. She fled St Petersburg during a gunfight, with her driver George, in a 1920 Peugeot. They drove all the way to a Romanov family holiday home, named Villa Donettella in Juan les Pins, where her aunt was in residence.
Pain
Tony had been getting a certain amount of discomfort for a couple of days, with an intermittent pain in the lower part of his stomach, leading up to his arrival in the South of France. He needed a room to lie down, and a doctor. They boarded with Madame Marcos at the Villa Donettella and her private doctor, M. Paul Henri, was called in and said that an operation to remove the appendix immediately was necessary, and took Tony to the hospital in his own car, where an examination revealed that he had appendicitis.
Fred telegraphed my parents, asking for permission, and for them pay for the operation. My father agreed and said he, mother and I would come out the following day. Eric and Connie would wait for Tony to recover, and I would travel back to England with Fred, in that glorious Austin Healey 100/6.
My parents got on very well with Madame Marcos, and found out a little more of her unbelievable story. Over the years they passed it on to me. Tony, much later on, confirmed to me, that he and my parents had seen the Peugeot car in 1958, riddled with bullet holes in the rear doors, broken down at the time, but, in later years the car was used on many occasions to fetch and take Eric and Connie to the station.
When Tony was released after a successful operation at the private hospital named Hospital Jean da’ rc, he, my father and mother, stayed at Villa Donettella until he was recovered enough to return home by plane. In the meantime Fred set off for home in his Austin Healey, with me as his companion. My father had been given the bill for the operation, which amounted to nearly £400, quite an expensive bill, when you think of the cost of my new Mini Minor Deluxe was £495, a year later.
Lydia Marcus was a most interesting woman. She spoke fluent Russian, English, French, German, Italian and Polish. She liked to have guests of various nationalities, to make up a cosmopolitan and languagelearning household. All her guests got on so well, that my parents booked in for the months of May and June in 1959, and did so for the ensuing 10 years.
Ukulele
Eric took his ukulele along with them on their next visit, as he was as good as George Formby was in playing and singing. Eric knew of at least 200 songs, all accompanied by his ukulele. Included were many of the soulful ballads of the 1930s, cowboy songs, such as Home on the Range and many Black Country songs, sung in a dialect that few people in the United Kingdom can understand, let alone people from other countries.
Outside the entrance of the Villa was a large pergola, covered with grapevines and bougainvillea plants. Beneath the Pergola was a large table, which could be used in the warm, dry weather for eating lunch and dinner. Candlelight was used for evening parties, and pleasant food, wine and cheese were provided for consumption.
Also on holiday there in 1959 were Stan and Carole Sokhodski, a Polish couple. They had fought with the British Army in World War II. Both of them were in the Polish Army, Stan was a private soldier, Carole was a sergeant major. They eventually came to
Britain in 1943, when they got off the boat, they were given two shillings and two pence each, a pittance to start their new lives in Britain. They eventually started up a company in London, making hairpieces for various people, including many actors. After this initial meeting the Villa they went on to be lifelong friends of Eric and Connie.
Sing
On the first night Eric went to get his ukulele, while others were enjoying their cheese and wine. He asked the table’s permission, and told them he would like to play and sing them a couple of songs, and would they say if they wanted him to stop, or continue. He started off with Home on the Range and then sang “My grandmother she, at the age of 83, took sick one night and died, after she was dead, the will of course was read, and they all sat side by side.” He went on to the end of the song and they all thoroughly enjoyed it, more, more! Lydia said to Eric, play it again please, and then sang it in French, then Carole sang it in Polish, and it turned out to be a great evening.
The next evening, four couples from the adjoining villas attended for the sing-song. By the time the holiday was over there were 20 people in attendance, Lydia said that the ‘get togethers’ were the talk of the town, and she felt that the nobility of Russia in the 1900s would have thoroughly enjoyed them.
Coming forward in time to 1965, my family were on holiday at the Villa Donettella, I spoke to George the concierge, and general helper about the three villas. He told me that they were built to a similar