BIKINI BEACH

A veteran reporter on le beau monde and celebrity- notoriety, from the life story of the Duchess of Windsor to the death of Sir Harry Oakes, has assembled a montage of the physical features, sporting elements, fashions, personalities, gossip and glamor of the world's greatest resort; the Riviera. From Saint Tropez and its unruly, untidy sports car (Bardot, Sagan, etc.) to Cannes and its elegance. Nice the least fashionable but most important city, to that picture postcard kingdom of Monaco, this captures the charm of each. There's a little about the discovery and development of this luxury lotus land; the fine foods and famous restaurants; the casinos, their patrons and systems (with a few pointers on play at the tables); on the dangerous driving- and the tourist blight-campers; and on some of the luminaries to be seen here and where. A propos of the bikini, a line like the "" weeny banner and symbol of the Cote d'Azur"" may ruin the illusion of cosmopolitan probably won't completely destroy the built- in spectator allure.