Villa Eilen Roc on the Cap d’Antibes

We’re just back from a visit to the new extension of the coastal path round the Cap d’Antibes.  It was opened today, all 500 metres of it, and opens up some more of the grounds of the Villa Eilenroc.  The camera came with us but unfortunately it forgot to bring any of its memory cards with it!

The Eilenroc has beautiful gardens, originally created by a Scot, James Wyllie. In the 1930s the villa was owned by an American millionaire, Victor Beaumont, who furnished it with antiques.   His wife attracted a large number of  famous guests and European royalty to her house parties.  The new stretch of footpath now allows visitors to use the bathing areas that were  originally created for Mrs Beaumont’s guests with a little bar area where the servants would bring food and drink down from the house.  The little bay is now known as  Billionaires  Bay (la Baie des Milliardaires).  After the war Mrs Beaumont reclaimed her property, but of  course the great days of European royalty and extravagant house parties were over and in the 1960s she left the house and grounds to the town of Antibes.  Its is now used for “distinguished guests” and special events.

We visited the olive grove and the rose garden as well.  I love the rose garden but the roses were all looking a bit battered today.  We have had several torrential downpours in the past few days, but the scent of the roses was still around.  It’s always a  pleasure to visit, even though  Roman Abramovitch is still adding more security fences and all sorts of electronic devices to his property next door.  How many nights is he actually going to spend there?

http://www.antibes.co.uk/eilen.roc/