Tadao Ando, Jean Nouvel, Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano have all built on the same vineyard north of Aix-en-Provence. Château La Coste is Provence's most unusual art walk – and one of France's palace hotels.
In this story · 5 sections
Château La Coste is located in Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade, half an hour north of Aix-en-Provence, amid vineyards, olive groves and oak forest. In 2003, the Irish art collector and property developer Patrick McKillen bought what was then a fairly ordinary vineyard. Since then, he has invited some of the world's most renowned architects and artists to build and exhibit on the estate, which covers around 130 hectares.
The result is one of Europe's most unusual destinations for art and architecture: a walk through the landscape where every turn reveals a new work. The housing market in the municipality can be found on VERA PI's page about Le Puy-Sainte-Réparade.
Château La Coste through the years
- 2003
- Patrick McKillen buys the estate
- 2008
- Jean Nouvel's wine cellar, Frank Gehry's music pavilion
- 2011
- Tadao Ando's art centre, chapel and Four Cubes
- 2017
- Renzo Piano's art pavilion
01Tadao Ando – the entrance
The visit begins with the Japanese architect Tadao Ando. His art centre, in concrete and glass, is situated by a shallow reflecting pool and was completed in 2011 – the same year as his chapel and the Four Cubes pavilion, four cubes in wood designed between 2008 and 2011. The art centre is the starting point of the walk, with a restaurant and shop.
In the reflecting pool in front of the building stands one of the promenade's most famous sculptures, Louise Bourgeois's spider Crouching Spider 6695 from 2003, which appears to walk on water.
02Jean Nouvel – the wine
Château La Coste is still a vineyard, and the wine is made in two hangar-shaped wine cellars by the French architect Jean Nouvel, completed in 2008. They sit low in the landscape and are among the few wine cellars in the world designed by a Pritzker Prize winner. The wines, red, white and rosé, are sold on the estate and served in the restaurants.
03Walking through the landscape
The art walk takes a couple of hours and follows paths through the forest and between the rows of vines. Along the way you encounter works by, among others, Alexander Calder, Richard Serra, Ai Weiwei and Hiroshi Sugimoto, whose Mathematical Model 012 from 2010 stands in a clearing. The works are positioned so that the landscape becomes part of them, and new ones are added over the years.
Bring water and comfortable shoes. In summer it is hot in the middle of the day, and it is best to go early or late in the afternoon, when the light falls low over the vineyards.
04Frank Gehry and Renzo Piano
Frank Gehry's music pavilion from 2008, a light structure in wood and glass, was originally a temporary pavilion that has been given a permanent home on the estate. Renzo Piano's art pavilion, completed in 2017, is partly sunk into the ground between the vine rows and is used for temporary exhibitions. Together with Ando and Nouvel, they make La Coste one of the few places where four Pritzker Prize laureates have built on the same ground.
05Villa La Coste – the palace among the vineyards
On the estate lies Villa La Coste, the hotel with suites and villas among the vine rows. It holds the Palace distinction from Atout France and is one of the few palaces in Provence away from the coast, alongside Airelles Gordes, La Bastide. According to the Guide Michelin's 2026 selection, Hélène Darroze's former one-star restaurant at Villa La Coste has closed.
Château La Coste can be combined with 48 hours in Aix-en-Provence – see also VERA PI's page about Aix-en-Provence. More destinations can be found among metromode.co's destinations, and with Metro Mode Camera you get the story behind every work.
