When artist Paul Signac arrived by sailing boat in St Tropez in 1892, he wrote to his mother that he had decided to rent a wonderful little beach hut on the Canoubiers Bay, only five minutes from the village, "lost in the pines and roses".

Seduced by the shimmering colours of the landscape - a pink and mauve sea at sunset on the Graniers Beach against the blue silhouette of the Maures mountain range - the painter set out to create his own private Eden. Here, in this sleepy fishing village, sailing, dancing, picnicking, lounging, swimming and playing pétanque were all part of his utopian vision of a life in harmony with nature. "I've just discovered happiness," he told his painter friends, and the word was out: come to St Tropez to indulge your fantasies.