theclassicmoviemuse I love walking in the woods, on the trails, along the beaches. I love being part of nature. I love walking alone. It is therapy. One needs to be alone to recharge one’s batteries.
— Grace Kelly
Soon-to-be princess of Monaco, Grace Kelly was 26 years old when she agreed to marry Prince Rainier. She was at the top of her game having just won an Oscar for The Country Girl, and she held Hollywood and the world in the palm of her hand. Before settling into her royal role, however, she had one more role to play – that of Tracy Lord in the MGM film High Society (1956).
Hollywood hit the road and headed to Newport, Rhode Island, for on location shooting and Grace became a summer resident at the elegant and historic Castle Hill Inn. She secured a cottage of her own with a small beach only steps away from her room. Seeking a place for relaxation and privacy, Grace would visit the beach and enjoy her free time there.
The staff of the inn noticed how often Grace would venture down to the beach and how unwieldy it was for her to climb back up the rocky hill. They soon had a staircase built for her to make her hideaway all the more accessible, and it was christened “Grace Kelly Beach.”
-Images are my own unless otherwise noted-
When I visited Grace Kelly’s beach I couldn’t help but think of what Grace was thinking and feeling during this time of her life. After all, she was about to leave her home country to become a ruler in a foreign one. Was she reticent about leaving her friends and family behind, having to learn another language, and having to live up to the public’s expectations?
Image: Public Domain
Grace Kelly brought undeniable warmth, charm, and elegance wherever she went; although she is gone, she is not forgotten. Grace is one of my favorite actresses and it was both a thrill and an honor for me to discover and visit a place that was so special to her. If you’re a fan, be sure and capture this piece of royal Hollywood history for yourself!
UPDATE: I discovered more of Grace Kelly Beach when I visited a second time at low tide. You can read about it by clicking here.
This post is my contribution to The 5th Wonderful Grace Kelly Blogathon hosted by Musings of a Classic Film Addict, The Flapper Dame, and The Wonderful World of Cinema. Thank you, ladies, for hosting this Grace-filled event!
Be sure to stop by their blogs and read the other lovely posts honoring the one and only Grace Kelly. For day 1 click here, day 2 click here, and day 3 click here.
Want more Grace? Check out my post Grace and Kate: The Princess and The First Lady of Cinema, then read about Grace as the ultimate Hitchcock blonde in my review of Hitchcock’s Heroines by Caroline Young.
Thanks for reading and for visiting The Classic Movie Muse!
I love your writing style! It was very agreeable to read. I thought you write a beautiful and informative article. Now I want to see Grace Kelly’s beach as well!
PS: Thanks for your participation to our blogathon of course!
Thank you so much, Virginie! The beach is a wonderful tribute to Grace and testimony of how she was loved. I hope you get to visit and walk in her steps. It’s an absolute dream getting to do so. Thank you for having me!
That’s absolutely the type of place where I like to go! And it looks so peaceful! Don’t forget to check my post 🙂
WOW! I had NO idea this place even existed. ITS SOOO cool Grace had a beach named after her! Just another fascinating quality about this wonderful woman! I sure wish I had a place to go to collect my thoughts and just think, ponder, dream. THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING!! I always love discovering new things about a favorite of mine! see you on the blog-o-sphere!
Isn’t it neat?! It is awesome how the inn is keeping Grace’s memory alive. When I visit, I put the High Society soundtrack on in my car on the way in and the way back. It really completes the experience. Newport is beautiful and relaxing. I can see how Grace would completely fall in love with it. Thanks so much for having me! Its always a joy to meet another Grace fan 🙂
Oh, I’d love to visit her hideaway! I’d also wonder what she was thinking about when she strolled down this beautiful beach. And it was very considerate of the hotel to build her a staircase.
Thanks for the kind comment!
Cheers!
Le
Thanks for reading and for your comment, Le!
This is wonderful. How lovely to have found Grace’s secret hideaway and to have walked in her footsteps. Great photos.
Thank you, Maddy! I wish all of us Grace fans could plan to meet and have a picnic on her beach while talking about all the reasons we admire her. I think she would be honored by that and what a fun filled day it would be!
That would be amazing.
I love the way you put yourself in Grace’s shoes as you visited the beach, wondering what exactly was going through her mind at that specific time in her life. It touches me on a personal level because it shows that others like myself were interested in her as a private individual who had a whole life in front of her. Having that time to kind of reflect on things must have been very therapeutic for her, albeit also bittersweet because she was leaving so many things behind. Thank you for bringing her secret hideaway to our attention. 🙂
Hi Erica, this is a beautiful comment. Absolutely, Grace is one of my favorite people/role models and constant source of inspiration and encouragement. She was humble, sensitive, had a wonderful sense of humor, devoted herself to whatever she chose to do, and cared about those around around her. She made some of the most difficult choices and we still wonder today what her life could have been like if she had stayed in America, but alas, we will never know. What we do have is the memory of a great lady. If you haven’t already, I highly recommend High Society: The Life of Grace Kelly by Donald Spoto. The author was a personal friend of Grace and writes from interviews he had with her. It’s mostly about her career but offers an honest glimpse into her difficulties living as a royal including her (sad to say) moments of melancholy.
I agree with you that her visits to the beach would have been full of mixed emotions. She was in love with a man who met all her criteria (and her parents’) whom she was ready to be completely devoted to, but she would have to leave behind everything that she ever knew in order to do so. Not to mention the added responsibilities of co-ruling a country and learning a new language. How did she ever do it?! Thank you for reading and for taking the time to leave this wonderful, thought-provoking comment!