Luxury Villas for Rent and Sale on the Côte d'Azur: Homes Once Owned by Chanel, Picasso and Lagerfeld

The Côte d'Azur has drawn visitors for well over a century, and among them numerous designers, artists, actors and writers who came to rent or own property along this coastline. Out of respect for privacy, this article covers only those properties whose past ownership has already been made public. Here are a few of the most famous houses along the Côte d'Azur.

Roquebrune Cap-Martin

La Pausa is a large property on Cap Martin, between Italy and Monaco, best known as Coco Chanel's Riviera residence from 1929 to 1953. The land, once used by Monaco's Grimaldi family as a hunting ground, was purchased and gifted to Chanel by her then partner, Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster. Chanel designed the villa herself, working alongside a young architect, Robert Streitz. The property took its name from a local legend that Mary Magdalene rested there on her journey back to Jerusalem following the crucifixion — a name later reused for one of Chanel's perfumes, No. 28 La Pausa.

Chanel's circle of guests at La Pausa included Igor Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, Paul Iribe, Salvador Dalí and Luchino Visconti. The property has since been acquired by the House of Chanel, which plans to restore it.

Here are links to several interesting articles from The New York Times about the lovely story of the history of La Pausa:

Monaco

Villa La Vigie sits at the eastern edge of the Principality and is often referred to as "the Karl Lagerfeld villa," after the designer lived there for roughly a decade. Built in 1903, it was one of the very few private residences in the area long before Monaco's skyline took shape, and today sits beside the Monte Carlo Country Club and Monte Carlo Beach. The current owners maintain the property to a high standard and offer it for rent, with guests also gaining access to the Monte Carlo Beach swimming pool.

Read Karl Lagerfeld's Monaco address book in Monte Carlo about where he likes to eat and spend his time in the Principality. For Karl fans, see his stylish apartment in Paris and the swimming pool that he redesigned for the Hotel Metropole in Monaco.

Several other leaders of the fashion and beauty world have also owned property on the Côte d'Azur, including Dolce & Gabbana in Roquebrune Cap-Martin, Givenchy in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, and Estée Lauder in both Cap Ferrat and Cannes.

Karl Continued...

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Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat has long attracted the same kind of high-profile ownership:

Villa Santo Sospir, once home to Jean Cocteau, and open to the public today
La Mauresque, formerly the residence of author Somerset Maugham
La Fiorentina
La Fleur du Cap, once owned by actor David Niven
Nellcôte, famously associated with the Rolling Stones
Villa les Cèdres, once the Grand Marnier family villa

Villa Les Cedres

Built in 1830, Villa Les Cèdres began life as a private estate on the western shore of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, later purchased by King Leopold II of Belgium in the early 1900s, who expanded its grounds into an extraordinary private botanical garden. The estate's gardens grew into a 14-hectare private botanical collection with 25 heated greenhouses and some 16,000 plant species — reportedly more than the entire French national natural history museum holds across all its sites. In 1924 the property passed to the Marnier-Lapostolle family, the makers of Grand Marnier, who cultivated the bitter oranges used to flavor the liqueur in orchards on the grounds, before it was eventually absorbed into the Campari group.

The villa became one of the Riviera's most talked-about sales when Campari put it on the market with speculation swirling around a headline price as high as a billion euros. Estimates varied widely — Nice-Matin floated €1 billion, Le Figaro suggested €300–500 million, and Bloomberg reported €350 million — though Campari itself never confirmed a figure. The sale ultimately closed in 2019, bringing to an end years of speculation and headlines, and cementing Villa Les Cèdres' status as one of the defining transactions in Cap Ferrat's history.

Villefranche-sur-Mer

Singer Tina Turner made Villefranche-sur-Mer her home for many years, owning a villa in Le Castellet with sweeping views over Villefranche Bay, which was featured in a 2000 edition of Architectural Digest. The Belle Époque property, set among lush Mediterranean gardens, reflected the privacy and understated elegance that drew her to the Riviera as her adopted home.

Cap d'Antibes

One of the most famous properties on Cap d'Antibes is Villa Aujourd'hui, a beautiful modernist waterfront house once owned by Hollywood mogul Jack Warner in the 1950s.

Cannes

Villa Roche Cline in Cannes was formerly the summer home of cosmetics entrepreneur Estée Lauder and her husband, Joseph, who purchased the property in 1961 and kept it until her death in 2004. In her autobiography, she is said to have described the villa as her favourite vacation home. Built in 1900 and converted into its Belle Époque style in the 1920s, the villa sits in the sought-after La Californie neighbourhood, less than a kilometre from the Croisette promenade with its beaches, restaurants and boutiques — the same district where Pablo Picasso lived at Villa La Californie from 1955 to 1961.

Estée Lauder is said to have developed some of her most celebrated fragrances at the villa, including, according to some accounts, her perfume Beautiful, drawing inspiration from the surrounding gardens and sea views. The property has since been carefully renovated, blending high-quality materials such as marble and oak with original architectural details preserved from its Belle Époque past.

Mougins

Pablo Picasso owned several properties in and around Cannes, including a house in La Californie named Le Pavillon de Flore and a beautiful old mas in Mougins. The Mougins property has since been carefully renovated by its current owner, who has taken great care to preserve as much of its history and connection to the artist as possible, while adding modern comforts.

Châteauneuf-de-Grasse

American chef and author Julia Child's house, La Pitchoune, sits in the countryside north of Cannes in Châteauneuf-de-Grasse. It became a lasting part of her connection to France, a place she returned to again and again both in person and in her writing. Her kitchen there, nicknamed "La Peetch," remained largely untouched after the last meal she cooked in it — a Provençal boeuf en daube, in 1992.

Saint-Tropez

Pop star George Michael once owned a property in the Marres area of Ramatuelle, reportedly named "Chez Nobby." The property has since been fully renovated and given a new name.