World Tour (1931-32) Revisited: Nice, March 31st, 1931

Charlie at the train station in Nice.

Except from A Comedian Sees The World:

My next move was to the south of France to visit my brother who had been living there for the last six months. I was to be the guest of Frank J. Gould in Nice, so after nine days in Paris, I arrived in the south of France, the playground of the fashionable world. 

Nice is a night's journey from Paris, and you arrive on the Cote d'Azur, "the blue coast," about noon, getting your first glimpse of the Mediterranean. It is a pity the railroads are so near the sea. They spoil the coastline. I am a little disappointed with my first glimpse of the country. It seems so congested with its houses on top of one another, so different from the open spaces of the coastline of California.

My friend Frank Gould and his wife met me at the station, along with my brother Syd and his family. I shall not go into the details of the welcome I received from the crowd. Nevertheless Frank Gould was considerably moved by the demonstration.

"It must make you very happy to be so admired," he remarked.

But after lunch he went with me to buy some tennis rackets, and as we walked along crowds started gathering until we stopped the traffic. People were pushing and shouting, "Hooray, Charlie!" They became so dense and demonstrative that we could hardly move on our way.

I could see Frank getting quite worried and when we eventually arrived home he declared, "I wouldn't be you for ten million dollars."

A gathering at the Majestic Hotel in Nice. Chaplin's host, Frank J. Gould, is on his right.
Gould, who was once married to Hetty Kelly's sister,  owned the hotel
 and provided Charlie and his entourage with a suite.
His wife, Florence, is on Charlie's left. Syd is seated next to her. 

Syd and Charlie in Nice.