One of the most enchanting of the ‘dream residences in the south of France’, this is the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild. The gardens surrounding the villa evoke both European and exotic landscapes recapturing the characteristics of Italian and Spanish gardens that were so dear to the Baroness.

In front of the villa, the French garden spreads out gloriously, but is in sharp contrast with both the neo-Renaissance architecture of the pink-stucco residence and the splendor of the Mediterranean greenery. It was on this peninsula that the Baroness was able to bring together and sing the praises of ‘the loveliness of Creation, that of the gods and that of Man’. The Villa is set among seven magnificent themed gardens. Here, strolling visitors will be surprised and enchanted by the exact symmetry of the formal French garden, the lush vegetation of the Spanish and Florentine gardens, the fragrant profusion of the rose garden, the rare trees in the exotic garden, or the archaeological remains in the Stone garden.

Cap Ferrat was the summer resort of Europe and North America's most elegant and wealthy denizens, and it was in 1905 that Baroness Ephrussi de Rothschild chose this spot to build her personal "folly" inspired by the great Renaissance palaces of Venice and Florence. This sumptuous palazzo, one of the finest listed buildings on the French Riviera, has views over the Bay of Villefranche on one side and the Bay of Beaulieu on the other.

Open year round.

Written by  Donna Dawson.

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