If you're into all things French, old and decadent, your itinerary while in Nice must include a trip to the Villa Ephrussi de Rothshild. More easily accessed by car, it is a very short train trip from Nice. Catch a train towards Italy, hop off at Beaulieu Sur Mer and you're nearly there.
The Villa is located on the exclusive St Jean Cap Ferrat, which extends out between Beaulieu Sur Mer and Ville Franche. However Beaulieu Sur Mer offers you another villa to visit, Villa Kerylos (which is also, by the way, just next door to Mr Eiffel's old residence) as well as a beach for a post visit dip! It's also slightly closer, so Beaullieu Sur Mer is the better option to hop off the train.
As you leave 'la gare', (the train station - if you're going to France, you'd better get used to it), turn left and head down to the main road, a 1-2 minute walk, then it's a right hand turn and you'll soon find yourself walking along the beachfront with St Jean Cap Ferrat ahead of you, heading out to sea on the left. Atop this you will see a very large pink house. This is the final destination.... March up the first hill, take the second street on the left and keep walking. It's a tough walk in the heat of the day with parts of the street not even having a footpath! But once you're up at the Villa, a cool sea breeze will be your reward.
So the story of this Villa? And what an interesting story it is.....
The Villa is located on the exclusive St Jean Cap Ferrat, which extends out between Beaulieu Sur Mer and Ville Franche. However Beaulieu Sur Mer offers you another villa to visit, Villa Kerylos (which is also, by the way, just next door to Mr Eiffel's old residence) as well as a beach for a post visit dip! It's also slightly closer, so Beaullieu Sur Mer is the better option to hop off the train.
As you leave 'la gare', (the train station - if you're going to France, you'd better get used to it), turn left and head down to the main road, a 1-2 minute walk, then it's a right hand turn and you'll soon find yourself walking along the beachfront with St Jean Cap Ferrat ahead of you, heading out to sea on the left. Atop this you will see a very large pink house. This is the final destination.... March up the first hill, take the second street on the left and keep walking. It's a tough walk in the heat of the day with parts of the street not even having a footpath! But once you're up at the Villa, a cool sea breeze will be your reward.
So the story of this Villa? And what an interesting story it is.....
The main character of this story is Beatrice de Rothschild, who was born in 1864, and was the daughter of the banker and major art collector Baron Alphonse de Rothschild. At the the tender age of 19, she married a family friend, Maurice Ephrussi, a Parisian banker of Russian heritage and 15 years her senior. Probably not the best of marriages (she caught a disease from him that made her unable to bear children), Maurice, a gambler, in 1904, was over 12 million gold francs in debt (about 30 million euro today). The Rothschild family took him to court and after 21 years of marriage, Beatrice and Maurice were separated.
A year later, Beatrice's father passed away and she inherited a huge fortune. It was at this time that she decided to build Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.
A year later, Beatrice's father passed away and she inherited a huge fortune. It was at this time that she decided to build Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild.
She came across the land, which runs along the top of the Cap and has stunning water views to either side, in 1906 and fell in love with the area. She immediately made the purchased once she discovered that King Leopold II of Belgium was also interested in it. She then discovered that her husband's cousin, Madame Fanny Reinach, the wife of Theodore Reinach, was building a Villa just across the water, the Villa Kerylos (which is built as a replica of an ancient greek home. Well worth a visit!) and she pressed on to build a bigger and better villa. Work began in 1907 and took 5 years. Apparently she was not the easiest of clients.
She furnished the Villa herself and "shopped" at the Beaulieu Sur Mer train station! One of the Rothschild businesses (well, they had shares in the business), the Paris-Lyon-Mediterranee Train Company, would send a train from Paris laden with furniture, paintings and objets d'art for her to choose from. She would select her purchases from the platform and the other purchases were then sent on to to her villa in Monaco. Of course she had many friends who were dealers and experts in the art world, and her home became an art collectors paradise, full of magnificent pieces including furniture, paintings, porcelain and the like, which can still be seen there today, including a dress laid out for her in her bedroom and her collection of Chinese costumes and shoes.
This Villa was her winter residence from 1912 and she returned regularly for the next 10 years. A year before her death in 1933, she bequeathed the Villa and all of it's contents to the Academie des Beaux-Arts.
Lucky us!
And the gardens..... well....
Lucky us!
And the gardens..... well....
She obviously had a passion for gardens as displayed in her four acres. There are nine magnificent gardens within these acres, including a Cactus, Rose, Oriental and Provencal Garden with scattered patios. waterfalls, ornamental ponds, flowerbeds and lovely shady paths. Of course the priorty was given to the French Garden, the most visible garden, located directly behind the Villa, complete with synchronised fountains which dance to music every 20 minutes.
There is so much more to share, and of course no words could compete with a visit,. So make sure it's in your list of Places to See while in the South of France.
Stay tuned..... Next stop: SANTORINI, Greece!
There is so much more to share, and of course no words could compete with a visit,. So make sure it's in your list of Places to See while in the South of France.
Stay tuned..... Next stop: SANTORINI, Greece!