French writer Jules Romains, of his true name Louis Farigoule, entered the superior teachers' training college in 1906 and passed the “agrégation” of philosophy in 1908. Before leaving the teaching profession in 1919, he was a professor successively in Brest, Laon, Paris, and Nice in 1917. He became attached to this city and to its surroundings. He liked promenading in the old town and by the sea. It was there that he placed the action of his novel Douceur de la vie (the Sweetness of life) (volume XVIII of the series les Hommes de bonne volonté (the Men of willingness)). He returned to Nice for his pleasure or to pronounce conferences at the Centre Universitaire Méditerranéen*. He celebrated this city in his poems:
" Beloved Nice, with its palaces, its casinos,
The fine palm trees similar to the women who lose weight
And its affectionate curved avenues towards Cimiez ".
He declared: " Nice is one out of five or six cities in the world the most pleasant to human being " (Aurore, in March 31, 1964). Living in Paris, he joined in 1932 Mesclun, a club of natives of Nice living in the capital. In 1968, he was made freeman of this city which he so often celebrated .