Ephrussi de Rothschild Villa and Gardens.

Sorry for the long absence everybody, the SP & I have been away on an extended trip to England and Scotland (pix & stories to come) and I have neglected my blogging duties for far too long.

A large Sevres vase is the centerpiece of this flowerbed, part of the celebrated Sevres Garden

With sister Kathryn, Cap Ferrat, September 2014

Today I'm going to be sharing with you the delights of the amazing Ephrussi de Rothschild Villaand Gardens in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat which I visited last month whilst in Nice for the QCI annual meeting.

The villa was the winter residence of Beatrice Rothschild who built the house after her separation from her husband Mr Ephrussi in 1904, and on the death of her father Baron Rothschild one year later.

Beatrice was extremely rich and spared no expense in the creation of the villa, she was able to afford anything she wanted and furnished the house accordingly.

Painted wall panels in the Directoire bedroom

With it's triple aspect windows looking out over the gardens and towards the sea, furnished with both French and Italian pieces and a Meissen chandelier the nicest bedroom on the first floor was reserved for Beatrice's guests

Guest bedroom

An upstairs inner hallway looking out onto the gardens

Russian icon

Each of the bedrooms had it's own bathroom, she also installed many new fangled inventions such as a telephone, a lift and central heating!

When it came to designing the gardens, and there are nine of them (click hereto learn more), she called her servants together and made them into a living garden dressed as trees and holding long swathes of fabric to represent rivers and ponds, pathways and flowerbeds.

As the servants moved around the grounds Beatrice was able to picture the garden exactly as she wished it to be before instructing famous landscape designers to create it for her.