Stones relive Riviera days

The Stones went into exile in the summer of 1971 in the South of France

So, in the summer of 1971, the British rock band went into exile in the South of France. Their time at the Villa Nellcôte in Villefranche is now the stuff of rock legend and the album, Exile on Main St. is the hangover after the party that has, thankfully, never gone away.  
The band's exploits during the notoriously wild days on the Riviera have been the subject of numerous books and films, most recently in the 2010 documentary Stones in Exile and in Keith Richards autobiography Life. The Stones  guitarist and songwriter was 28 when he leased the luxurious Nellcôte and in Life, he is full of juicy stories about the time they spent in their ‘Riviera Castle’. And it wasn't all fun and games: they recorded all night, every night from 8pm until 3am, in the villa's basement.
Not all the group were based in Nellcôte that summer: Charlie Watts was in Vaucluse, Bill Wyman in the hills of Grasse, Mick Jagger stayed in the Byblos Hotel in Saint-Tropez, where he married Bianca De Macias in May that same year. The chaotic yet incredibly creative period was brought to an abrupt halt with a drugs bust. Richard's was then banned from entering France for two years.
Although it received mixed reviews on its release Exile in Main St. has since been universally hailed as a masterpiece.
Hannah Marshall