Ephrussi de Rothschild Villa in France

Cap-Ferrat, France.

The best estate gardens I visited during my trip to the south of France in late June was the Jardins de la Fondation Ephrussi de Rothschild, widely considered the most perfect dream villa of the Riviera.

It's called Villa Ile-de-France and sits only a couple of miles east of Nice. In fact I took a city bus there. It was a spectacular ride along the famous coastal road carved into cliffs high above the Mediterranean. The stoic bus driver was an expert at judging close calls - he gave himself four inches clearance between cars. The bus itself was so crowded with regular commuters (and a few tourists) that it was standing room only. But the view down the precipice into the blue water was amazing.

The villa and its gardens were built on top of the Cap Ferrat peninsula with ocean and mountain views in all directions that were even better.

(Musee Ephrussi de Rothschild) Photos by Carol Stocker

The villa itself is like Boston's Isabella Stuart Gardner Museum on steroids. It is built in a similar Italian Renaissance style with galleries of antique and art filled rooms surrounding a square two story atrium. Like the Gardner, it is one incredibly wealthy woman's monument to her own taste as an art collector and garden lover and was bequeathed intact as a museum upon her death (in 1934).The house, like all the hundreds of roses on the property, is pink, Baroness Beatrice Ephrussi de Rothschild's favorite color. She traveled the world collecting art and was said to have bought an entire shapel just for one single fresco that was in it.

The Louis XV-XVI furniture displayed inside the palazzino include Marie Antoinette's whist table and it is said that the Baroness would dress up sometimes like that ill fated queen to receive guests.

She also loved gardens, and these are laid out in a series of compartments representing different architectural and planting styles.

In addition to the pink rose garden, there is a Japanese garden with a pagoda, a Sevres garden, a steep dry garden planted with lavender and other herbs synonymous with Provence, and a stone garden designed around pieces of Roman and medieval bas relief carvings. The Exotic garden is criss crossed with winding paths amid cacti, aloe, agave, euphorbias and other foreign desert plants that like the mild dry climate of the French Riviera.


(Musee Ephrussi de Rothschild)

My niece Gail Schontzler, a reporter for the Bozeman Chronical in Montana, and I were snapped by in the Florentine garden at the foot of a double staircase with wrought iron balustrading. It also has a path lined with abelias, streptosolen, lantanas, senecios and raphiolepsis, overlooking the Villefranche-sur-Mer Harbour.

(Musee Ephrussi de Rothschild)

The grandest of all is the French garden which runs from the villa to a small mount topped with a columned "Temple of Love." The estate is named after an ocean liner and this garden is modeled on a ship's deck with the temple at the prow with a stepped waterfall tumbling into a long canal. Surrounded by the sea, Beatrice could imagine herself once again on board the "Isle de France."

Dozens of jets of water spurt and sway continually in time to the sound of musical classics. It was all indeed like a cheerful beautiful dream in the Mediterranean sunshine (especially compared to the rainy June weather back home). Visiting school children darted across stepping stones, dodging the flutes of water. We broke out our picnic of bread and cheese on a shady bench next to the dancing fountains.

(Musee Ephrussi de Rothschild)

I've never visited a garden with such spectacular vistas. Beatrice competed with King Leopold II of Belgium for the 17 acres of land, and later supervised every aspect of the creation of the villa and its many gardens, which were completed in 1912. But she only stayed four years. After the death of her husband in 1916, she never lived there again.

She collected houses as well as art, and owned four villas in neighboring Monaco, alone, so she had plenty of places to hang her hat.


(Musee Ephrussi de Rothschild)

Some of the gardens such as the Spanish garden shown here, a favorite of mine, were added after the Baronness' death. It has canals planted with aquatic plants such as papyrus, a dolphin fountain and a grotto of marble, pink of course.


(Musee Ephrussi de Rothschild)

It is all now owned by the Institut de France and open daily with a 10 Euro admission fee. There is a belle epoch indoor/outdoor restaurant with unbeatable views and, of course, a gift shop. And there's plenty of parking if you don't want to take the city bus.