Villa Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat

One of the last remaining Belle Epoque estates on Cap Ferrat's eastern shore, this villa has hosted European industrialists since the 1920s. The property descends through tiered gardens of bougainvillea and stone pine to a private gate opening onto Paloma Beach. Interiors have been restored to museum standard, with original parquet floors, marble fireplaces, and a glass-roofed conservatory. A staff of five includes a chauffeur with a Mercedes S-Class and a vintage Riva tender moored at the harbour. Cap Ferrat is the most expensive residential address on the French Riviera, and Villa Saint-Jean occupies one of its most historic plots. The property's guestbook reads like a 20th-century European social register. The current owners, who acquired the estate in 2010, invested three years in a restoration that brought every room back to its original 1920s specification while discreetly installing modern systems: climate control, high-speed internet, a security system, and a new commercial kitchen behind the period facade. Ten bedrooms are arranged across the main house and a garden annexe. The main house holds eight bedrooms over three floors, including a master suite with a marble bathroom, a private terrace facing the sea, and views to Beaulieu-sur-Mer and the Alps beyond. The garden annexe contains two additional bedrooms with independent access, suitable for staff or security detail. The tiered gardens deserve their own mention. Landscaped in the 1920s by a botanist who advised the nearby Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild, the gardens descend through successive terraces of bougainvillea, jasmine, stone pine, and century-old olive trees. A pebble pathway leads down through the gardens to a private gate that opens directly onto Paloma Beach - one of the Riviera's most beautiful and exclusive stretches of coastline. The chauffeur and Mercedes S-Class are available for all guest movements: airport transfers from Nice (20 minutes), dinner reservations in Monaco (15 minutes), or day trips along the Grande Corniche. The vintage Riva Aquarama - one of fewer than 800 ever produced - is moored at the Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat harbour. The tender is available with a skipper for coastal excursions, lunch trips to Villefranche-sur-Mer, or arrivals at the beach restaurants of Eze-sur-Mer. The glass-roofed conservatory, positioned at the junction of the main house and the garden, serves as both a breakfast room and an evening lounge. Furnished with rattan chairs and potted palms in the colonial French tradition, it provides shelter on the rare days when the Mistral wind pushes clouds over the peninsula.