Born on 1840, Director of the New York Herald Tribune, creator of motor race events, spokesman for submarine cables, fantastically wealthy, francophile, James Gordon Bennett came to Villefranche in 1882, on his yacht Namouna, one of the most beautiful of the world. He returned regularly on the French Riviera and chose finally Beaulieu where he bought a villa. Original, sometimes violent, hard drinker, he knew however how to show himself generous towards Berlugans (inhabitants of Beaulieu). He died in Beaulieu on May 14, 1918.

Ralph SCHOR