Iconic Villas of the French Riviera
A private walk through the residences that shaped the legend of the Azure coast.
From the peninsula of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat to the pine groves of Cap d'Antibes, the French Riviera shelters some of the most coveted residences in the world — summer palaces of Russian aristocrats, secret retreats of American industrialists, ateliers of Belle Époque artists.
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild
Perched on the narrow ridge of Cap-Ferrat, Béatrice de Rothschild's pale-rose villa remains the absolute archetype of Belle Époque Riviera living. Built between 1907 and 1912, it cradles nine themed gardens — French, Spanish, Florentine, Japanese — orchestrated like the deck of a liner above the sea.
Villa Santo Sospir
On the same Cap, Jean Cocteau famously "tattooed" Francine Weisweiller's house with frescoes in 1950. A quiet manifesto of the Riviera spirit: relaxed elegance, southern light, and a circle of artists — Picasso, Chanel, Bardot — for whom the coast was both studio and refuge.
Château de la Croë
At the tip of Cap d'Antibes, this white palace welcomed Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson after his abdication, then Onassis, then Abramovich. Few houses tell so clearly the story of an aristocratic coastline becoming the stage of global fortune.
Villa La Fiorentina
Restored by Lady Kenmare and her son Rory Cameron, La Fiorentina is the apex of Cap-Ferrat elegance: an Italianate villa at the end of a cypress allée, opening onto the bay of Beaulieu, long considered the most beautiful private house in Europe.
Villa Eilenroc
Designed by Charles Garnier — architect of the Paris Opera — Eilenroc occupies the extreme point of Cap d'Antibes. Eleven hectares of gardens, parasol pines and a belvedere over the Mediterranean compose a cinematic setting: Hitchcock filmed To Catch a Thief here.
These houses are rarely for sale. When they are, they are never sold publicly. That is precisely why our maison exists.
