If you are already thinking about your next summer holiday, we have a perfect recommendation for you – a small French town called Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Villas for rent in Cap Ferrat are famous for their beauty and breathtaking views. Keep reading to find more about this magnificent location.
Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat is one of the world’s most exclusive destinations, having hosted royalty, heads of state, stars, and celebrities since the early nineteenth century. It has retained its very special, unspoiled charms throughout time. The city and its port exude elegance, good taste, and a high standard of living. The world-renowned peninsula of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, located just a few kilometers from Nice, Cannes, Cap d’Antibes, and Monaco, offers the allure of an exceptional and preserved site. In the heart of the Côte d’Azur, a green oasis. This magnificent natural corniche, rich in history and culture, shines with beaches, restaurants, magnificent gardens, and sumptuous villas. Edith Piaf, Charlie Chaplin, Elisabeth Taylor, Romy Schneider, David Niven, Jen-Paul Belmondo, The Rolling Stones, and, more recently, Tina Turner, Andrew Lloyd Weber, Johnny Depp, and Vanessa Paradis are among the royalty and celebrities who have passed through the gates. Politicians, artists, Henri Matisse, Jean Cocteau, and others have all lived here. Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat is a world-famous, exclusive, and fashionable seaside resort, but it is much more.
We recommend visiting some of the renowned historic estes, located in Cap Ferrat:
Villa Fiorentina
Villa Fiorentina is a private residence on Saint-Hospice that was built in 1919. This villa, known for being one of the most beautiful estates on the Côte d’Azur, belonged to Edmund Gabriel Davis in 1919, then to Enid Lindeman, wife of Marmaduke Furness, Viscount Furness, then to the Count of Kenmare, and was the site of many social parties in the 1950s and 1960s, as well as the resort of celebrities such as Greta Garbo, Elizabeth Taylor, and Somerset Maugham. Thérèse Vitali, Countess of Beauchamps designed the villa in the style of Jacopo Barozzi da Vignola’s “Palazzina della Vigna.” She enlisted the help of architect Aaron Messiah and landscaper Harold Peto for the design. Ferdinand Bac designed the interior design as well as the gardens. Bac designed the theme gardens, while Peto designed the royal perspective of the cypress alley with its marble steps descending to the sea. Villa Cypris’ gardens inspired the cloister, enclosed garden, and Moorish garden. Thérèse Vitali named this residence “La Fiorentina,” after her father, Count Vitali’s, palace in Cannes.
Villa Les Cèdres
The Villa Les Cèdres is the world’s largest private botanical garden. It is a plant sanctuary designed by Julien Marnier-Lapostolle! Only a select few were granted access to the botanical garden of Villa Les Cèdres in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. All attested to the exceptional beauty and wealth of the collections of this former property of King Leopold II of Belgium, which has now become a temple to the art of gardens and botany.
David-Désiré purchased it in 1850. When he became mayor of Villefranche-sur-Mer, he was greeted by a slew of celebrities. David-Désiré Pollonnais’ heirs sold the villa and its fourteen hectares of gardens to King Leopold II of Belgium in 1904. He preferred to live in Monaco, but he purchased Les Cèdres to accommodate his friend, Blanche Zélie Joséphine Delacroix, better known as Caroline Delacroix, whom he nicknamed “Très-Belle.” He met her in 1899, when she was only 16 years old and he was 64. When he realized he was nearing the end of his life, he made Très-Belle the Baroness of Vaughan and his wife. Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle, owner of the Grand Marnier liqueur and the Château de Sancerre vineyard, purchased the villa in 1924. Botanists praise his creations, which include an exotic garden and an arboretum. Since 1976, the villa has been owned by the Société des Produits Marnier-Lapostolle, which cultivates plants used in the production of Grand-Marnier liqueur. Twenty-five heated greenhouses are available at the villa Les Cèdres. There are 20,000 species cultivated there, fourteen thousand of which are tropical. Campari Group has since sold the villa.
