Le Stuff’s Definitive Location Guide to Alfred Hitchcock’s Classic Film

Series Post #15

Plage de Passable, St Jean Cap Ferrat

One afternoon several years ago I made what turned out to be a fortuitous decision.  I had just paid my tab at a snazzy little joint overlooking Villefranche.  The houses scattered along the steep hillside below the restaurant were bathed in an ethereal, only-in-the-south-of-France, sunlight.  A breeze rose up from the Mediterranean and I heard yet another person remark with absolute certainty that the outline of Corsica can be seen from the coast of France on a clear day.

This is nonsense.

Maybe, just maybe if you are a young Clark Kent, but even then I doubt it.

Normally after a two hour lunch (wine included) I would have made a bee-line to my apartment, careening into the little parking lot on Place Francis Paulet in a semi-conscious state, drool imminent.  Not caring the slightest if I closed the car door or even had pants on, I would hobble zombie-like to La Placette, stumble inside, and head straight to bed for an afternoon nap.

But not on this day.  I bravely pushed aside my self-induced somnolence and decided to pay a visit to the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in nearby St Jean Cap Ferrat.  For those unfamiliar with The Rothschild villa, it is an exceptionally beautiful property located on the narrowest part of the St Jean….blah, blah, blah.  We don’t really care about that now do we?

The important thing is that upon leaving The Rothschild Villa I turned left on Av Denis Semeria.  A chance right onto Chemin de Passable led me to La Plage de Passable, a charming little beach I immediately recognized from the film To Catch A Thief.

There in all its glory, the domed villa overlooking la plage, Villefranche in the distance, and the stone sea wall from which poor Monsieur Foussard fell to his death.

Thus, another TCAT location in the can.