Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild

In 1904, Beatrice purchased 17-acres at the next village along the coast from Beaulieu and employed Aaron Messiah to build her rose-colored home overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. It's surrounded by nine individually themed gardens laid out under the supervision of Achille Duchêne: French, Spanish, Japanese, Florentine, Provençal, and Exotic; with, a stone garden, a rose garden, and a garden de Sèvres. The garden immediately in front of the villa is shaped like a ship, best seen from the logia as though it were the ship's bridge. The idea was inspired by a voyage Beatrice had taken on the ocean liner Île de France, which was the name she gave to the villa. To round out the scene, the 30-gardeners who maintained it were dressed as French sailors with berets topped with red pom-poms!

The villa itself is built in the Venetian style and was loosely inspired by its storied neighbor, the Villa Sylvia, which Messiah had built for an American couple who were prominent in Venice. On her death in 1934, Beatrice donated the entire estate (including her remarkable collection of Old Masters paintings, sculptures, and exquisite porcelains) to the Académie des Beaux Arts and it is now open to the public. Today, the immaculately maintained villa and gardens remain precisely as they were while Beatrice lived here.