At the beginning
Some history…
La SIESTA land which previously belonged to the S.N.C.F. was acquired in 1953 by The Widow Mrs. LAPORTE who gave it by donation to his son Mr. Pierre LAPORTE in 1958. The land was first used as an ancillary site by the neighboring factory operated by the LAPORTE company managed by Mr. Pierre LAPORTE.
The LAPORTE Company had two main activities:
- Manufacturing of concrete products on the one hand
- Manufacturing of Artificial Pigeons and Pigeon Shooting Equipment on the other hand.
Indeed, thanks to its staff and its Mechanics Workshop, the LAPORTE Company was able to give assistance to the development of La SIESTA and the construction of rental karts, as we will see later.
In 1958, when the Department of the New seaside Road was created, the construction of the site had to be given up, due to the partial expropriation required by the building of the Road. This expropriation was negotiated in the form of an exchange of land by which Mr. Pierre LAPORTE acquired in replacement the parcel of the Public Domain which ensured the continuity of his property along the beach.
The construction of the New Road gave this land its exceptional value overnight. Indeed, on the first kilometers of the coastal strip bounded on the left by the road and on the right by the beach, it was the only private property with a land with an area of approximately 8,000m2. The development of this land in the form of a tourist exploitation was now necessary. In addition, such an enterprise responded to the wish of the Public Authorities to provide local tourism with the possibility of extension by means of this new road serving 6 km of beach, previously inaccessible. In other words, their support was guaranteed.
Various enhancement projects were developed between 1958 and 1959 – including: “BEACH SELF SERVICE” and “LA FIESTA”. They were two large separate bathing establishments which, even if aiming at customers of different standing, both had to present a range of amenities and entertainment sufficient to attract vacationing customers and especially to keep them for the whole day, or even part of the night. This of course in order to encourage this clientele to spend on the spot and “happily” most of what their vacation budget would allow them to devote to entertainment and the beach.
Which was achieved was in fact quite different from the initial overall project, due to the circumstances which determined the start of the business
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The “BEACH SELF SERVICE” establishment intended for the general public was not fitted out,
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The “LA FIESTA” establishment which has meanwhile become “LA SIESTA”, only received part of the expected bathing facilities.
On the other hand, the Catering, Bar, Night-club and Games activities were the subject of much more extensive adjustments than planned. It was no longer exactly a luxury bathing establishment, but a perfectly valid shopping complex where the bathing operation was still only secondary.
An ideal location
La Siesta occupied a land of approximately 15,000 m2 located by the sea between ANTIBES and NICE, 3 km from CAP D’ANTIBES.
This land consisted of a plot of 380 meters in length and 40 meters in width arranged parallel to the beach constituting its eastern limit, while the tourist road from ANTIBES to NICE by the seaside constituting the western limit. This means that the tourist value of this location is absolutely exceptional, both by the intensity of traffic on the neighboring road and by the quality of the panorama: the entire Baie des Anges, limited in the south by the CAP of ANTIBES and in the North by NICE and the CAP FERRAT, with in the background the peaks of the Southern Alps.
La SIESTA had to be able to accommodate many cars. Therefore, access to the establishment was preceded by several car parks, with a total capacity of 350 cars, delimited by lawns lined with grass or flowers and decorated with maritime pines. These waves of greenery, contrasting with the total nudity of the neighboring coast and the immediate proximity of the sea, have always been a pleasant prelude to the “atmosphere” of La SIESTA where the decorator has been able to create, thanks to flower beds, trees and exotic plants, as well as many water features, a much appreciated cool and relaxing setting during the heat of summer.
For many years, the beach, in place of what was to become the Siesta, was used by the LAPORTE construction company specialized in the manufacture of concrete pipes for drains and septic tanks. The activities of LAPORTE were distributed on each side of the railway. Nowadays, ESPACE LAPORTE remains on the N7 road and still belongs to Jean-Michel LAPORTE. Moreover, he was born within these walls!
Le terrain avant la construction
Work began in June 1959 …
by clearing and leveling the land on the one hand and transforming existing buildings fitting into the development of a Club on the other hand. The delays necessitated by the numerous administrative formalities, both for land exchange acts and for prefectural authorizations and the Ministry of Construction, determined the execution of the work in successive stages. The deed of land exchange was signed in February 1960 and it was very late to begin work for an operation during the Summer of 1960. Then Pierre, Jean-Michel’s father, decided to create one of the first Karting tracks in Europe which presented a double interest:
- The paved area would be the same that the car park scheduled in La SIESTA project.
- Karting being an attractive element would make it possible to create a first clientele and to impose in the minds of the public the idea that this sector of the Coast was no longer an empty and uninteresting beach.
Construction work of the Track and an annex Bar began on June 9, 1960. Thanks to the assistance of the LAPORTE Company, they were carried out in record time. The Karts are manufactured on site with the chainsaw engines of the time… The Karts would have been invented by American sailors to pass the time on the desk of aircraft carriers … we must not forget that the Second World War was only over for about fifteen years. The times were favorable for the creation and development of leisure activities.
Pierre Laporte knows this well. Always ready to innovate, he has only one goal: to give joy to people who really need it in this resurgent world …
Les Travaux de construction du Karting
On July 13, the operation of the karting began. The success was immediate and quite unexpected, we did not anticipate the crowds at the Bar which only sold non-alcoholic drinks. From 9 p.m. until 2 a.m., the karting was in full swing. Very quickly, the Bar proved to be totally insufficient and unsuitable to satisfy a “night” clientele. As the success of karting exceeded all expectations, Pierre Laporte decided to give the place an original identity without comparison with what was being done at the time in the field of leisure.
The idea of la SIESTA was born, and it was Jean-Claude Laporte, elder brother of Jean-Michel who proposed the name SIESTA when the name initially chosen should have been FIESTA!
It was the opportunity that we had sought to create. It even exceeded all possible hopes: the development of the Club was immediately decided and carried out between July 15 and August 12. It was necessary to buy a large license, complete the equipment of the Bar, fit out the Bar-Pizzeria for catering, furnish the Patio-Dancing and install the stereo sound system.
Plage et bâtiments prennent forme
