La Fleur du Cap: Inside the Legendary Riviera Villa of David Niven, Cap-Ferrat

Origins: Lo Scoglietto

Thanks to its striking rose-coloured façade and unique position directly on the water at Cap-Ferrat, La Fleur du Cap is one of the most recognisable properties on the French Riviera — still often referred to locally as "the David Niven villa."

The story begins in 1880, when Eustache Albert Bounin, an olive oil merchant from Nice and the son of a Sardinian arms supplier, acquired a small rocky promontory on the Cap-Ferrat shoreline. He built a modest waterfront house, naming it L'Isolatta, which served as his private retreat — a place to ride and swim away from the public eye. A small cabin at the very tip of the promontory was linked to the main house by a narrow footbridge.

Lo Scoglietto and the Bounin Years

The property passed to Bounin's son, Paul, who served as secretary of the civil hospital of Nice and as a town councillor. He added a floor to the house and renamed it Lo Scoglietto — Italian for "the little rock." Within its 3,000m² grounds, the French silent film L'Esclave de Phidias, starring Valentine Petit, was shot on location.

Aristocrats, Royalty and Hollywood

In 1920, the villa was rented by the Duchess of Marlborough, Consuelo Vanderbilt, while her nearby property, Lou Sueil, was under construction in Èze. Thirty years later, in 1950, the extended villa was rented by King Léopold III of Belgium, one year before his abdication. In 1957, Charlie Chaplin spent several weeks there with his wife, Oona, and their five children — a well-known photograph from the stay shows the family gathered on the villa's small footbridge.

David Niven and the Golden Years

In 1962, the villa was purchased by British actor David Niven and his wife, the Swedish former model Hjördis Genberg. It was during this period that the property became widely known as "Villa David Niven." Niven was a close friend of Monaco's Grimaldi family, and guests including Grace Kelly are said to have visited and played pétanque on the small court in the garden.

In 1982, a scene for the film Curse of the Pink Panther was filmed at the villa — Niven's final role before his death the following year. Niven's wife retained the property until 1996, when it was sold.

La Fleur du Cap Today

The villa was subsequently bought by Croatian-born artist Ana Tzarev and her husband, Robert Chandler, purchased for her by their sons — the New Zealand-born financiers Christopher and Richard Chandler — as a gift. As a young woman, Tzarev is said to have kept a photograph of the villa in her family home, long before ever imagining she would one day own it.

Superbly restored and expanded over the years, the property — renamed La Fleur du Cap — is now considerably larger than its original footprint, with elegant lower terraces leading directly down to the sea. In 1983, the village of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat named the small square in front of the villa Place David Niven, in tribute to its most famous resident.

Please note that this article was written solely to document the history of La Fleur du Cap. The villa is not available for rent, and this is not a real estate listing.

Further Reading

• Place David Niven, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat — Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Tourism