Villa Ephrussi
The French Rivera has become the favourite vacation spot for many famous and established upper-class families over the centuries. Beautiful, sky-blue and crystal-clear sea, palm trees, sunshine and so many miracles await those who are searching for home in this beautiful part of the world.
Dozens of imposing villas have been built on the coast or on the hillside, with direct or indirect sea view and gardens with trees that provide ample shadow during the hot summer days.
One of the most charming villas on the French Riviera is Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild on the isthmus of Cap Ferrat, which is still well-kept and open to visitors.
The villa was named after Baroness Béatrice Ephrussi (her maiden name was Béatrice de Rothschild). Béatrice was the granddaughter of the founder of the fabled Rothschild banking dynasty and the daughter of the regent of the Banque de France and his cousin from the English branch of the family.
At the age of nineteen, Béatrice married Maurice Ephrussi, who was also very wealthy—the family money came from wheat trading—like his wife. However, the marriage of the wealthy and powerful couple was unhappy, Béatrice thus wanted to find something to occupy herself, in which she could take delight. She really loved travelling, gorgeous buildings, was an art lover and cultured. Her father died in 1905, and she inherited a huge fortune from him. Meanwhile she fell so much in love with the French Riviera, especially with the area of Nice, that she decided to build a villa using her inheritance.
It took seven years to complete, and Béatrice—who was said to be a wealthy eccentric—did all she could to fill the villa with breath-taking works of art and furniture. She was therefore travelling all over France during the construction period to search for and acquire the most unique pieces of art from the 16–18th centuries.
Irrespective of the occasion, she usually dressed in pink, and hence the villa has thus been called:
“pink villa—lady in pink”
Béatrice was an animal lover; she had two monkeys, hundreds of birds and a mongoose. Her mongoose was said to have a Louis XVI style chair as its favourite napping spot, which stood by her bed in the bedroom.
She insisted that all gardeners who worked there wore sailor costumes to make her feel like being on a ship.
In addition, she had a penchant for gambling. Since Monaco is twenty-minute drive from the villa, it is unsurprising that the Baroness was a regular visitor to the famous casino in the city-state. When tired of sitting at a gaming table, she usually returned to one of her apartments maintained in Monaco, the splendour and lavishly decorated villa filled with works of art thus often remained empty with no one living in it.
