The former Hôtel Provençal in resort town Juan-les-Pins is now luxury apartments, including this three-story unit with lots of outdoor space
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A lavish penthouse on the French Riviera within a former Art Deco hotel that was frequented by a veritable who’s who of writers, artists and actors has hit the market for €40 million (US$43.4 million).
The three-level unit sits atop Le Provençal, a residential development converted from the Hôtel Provençal, which was built in the mid-1920s at the direction of American millionaire Frank Jay Gould.
In its prime, the 290-room hotel in the resort town Juan-les-Pins was the place to see and be seen.
“Chanel invented pyjamas as beachwear there. Ernest Hemingway sat at the bar, and Edith Piaf partied in the ballroom. Picasso painted the beach scenes, and Man Ray photographed them,” according to The New York Times.
The hotel shuttered in 1977, and its transformation into 39 residences by British developer Caudwell is expected to be completed next year.
Entered via private elevator and spanning upward of 9,000 square feet, the six-bedroom penthouse, which hit the market earlier this week, spans the east wing of the building across the eighth, ninth and 10th floors.
For its interiors, the developer aimed to channel the glamour for which the area is renowned, and turned to the outfits of famous names who frequently visited, along with the colours of the French Riviera, as inspiration.
The primary bedroom suite, for example—which has two bathrooms, dressing rooms and a private terrace—pays homage to the pink hues of the surroundings and the elaborate caftans that Elizabeth Taylor wore on one of her many visits to the area.
The home also boasts a family room, a home cinema, a gym, a family kitchen and breakfast room, a sculptural oval staircase, vast living and entertaining spaces, and impressive views along the French Riviera.
There’s a whopping 3,789 square feet of private terraces across the home—making its outdoor space larger than many single-family homes—a private pool and six parking bays in the development’s secure parking garage.
“With their private terraces, swimming pools and far-reaching panoramic views the penthouses at Le Provençal are the jewels in the [development’s] crown,” said Lars Christiaanse, group director of sales at Caudwell.
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Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
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A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
