Béatrice de Rothschild built her pink villa like a ship with the sea on both sides and had thirty gardeners dress up as sailors. Here is how to experience the villa and its nine gardens in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.
In this story · 5 sections
Where the peninsula of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat joins the mainland stands a pink villa on a headland with the sea on both sides: the Rade de Villefranche to the west and the Bay of Beaulieu to the east. Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild is one of the Riviera's most visited houses, and it is easy to understand why. The house is a collector's dream, and the gardens around it are among the most beautiful in France.
Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild
Museum and garden · Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
© OpenStreetMap contributors · OpenFreeMap
- Address
- 1 avenue Ephrussi de Rothschild, 06230 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
- 1 February – 1 November 2026
- Every day 10am–6pm (July–August until 7pm)
- 2 November 2026 – 31 January 2027
- Every day 10am–4.30pm, weekends and holidays 10am–6pm
- Admission, adult
- 18 euros
- Admission, ages 7–17 and students under 25
- 12 euros
- Children under 7
- Free
Béatrice de Rothschild's 1912 villa with 18th-century collections and nine themed gardens.
01Béatrice de Rothschild and the Villa Île-de-France
Béatrice de Rothschild (1864–1934) belonged to the Rothschild banking family and was married to the banker Maurice Ephrussi. According to Wikipedia, she had the villa built between 1907 and 1912 to designs by the architect Aaron Messiah. She filled the house with antique furniture, paintings by old masters, sculptures and a large collection of rare porcelain.
The villa was also called Île-de-France, after a voyage she had made on the ocean liner of the same name. The garden was designed as a ship to be seen from the house's loggia, as if from a bridge, with the sea visible on all sides. The thirty gardeners were dressed as sailors, in berets with red pompoms.
When Béatrice died in 1934, she left the villa and the collections to the Académie des Beaux-Arts of the Institut de France, which still owns the house. Since 1996, the villa has been protected as a historic monument.
02The nine gardens
The gardens were laid out between 1905 and 1912 under the direction of the landscape architect Achille Duchêne, and the French Ministry of Culture has classified them as a Jardin remarquable. There are nine of them, each with its own theme: French, Spanish, Japanese, Florentine, Provençal, exotic, a stone garden, a rose garden and a Sèvres garden.
Insider tipOpen every day.
The French garden is the largest and lies behind the villa. A long pool with fountains, statues and water lilies leads towards a hill with cypresses, where a copy of the Temple of Love from the Petit Trianon at Versailles stands. Below the temple, the water flows down into the pool in a stepped cascade.
A staircase leads down to the smaller gardens. The Spanish garden has a shady courtyard with a fountain, fragrant plants and Catalan amphorae. The Florentine garden faces Villefranche's harbour, with a grand staircase, an artificial grotto and a marble ephebe. In the stone garden stand gargoyles, columns and other fragments of ancient and medieval buildings. The Japanese garden has a wooden pavilion, a bridge and lanterns, and the exotic garden has giant cacti. In the rose garden pink dominates, Béatrice's favourite colour.
03The collections in the villa
Inside the house, the salons and Béatrice's private rooms are on display, with collections from the 18th century: porcelain from the Manufacture royale de Sèvres, tapestries, paintings by old masters and rare furniture, according to the Nice tourist office. An audio guide is available in nine languages, including English, and an average visit takes around two hours.
Béatrice's old dining room is now the Restaurant Béatrice. The terrace overlooks the Villefranche roadstead, and in season you can sit beneath the orange trees.
04Artists and opera in the garden
Every June, the villa holds a painting day, when artists are invited to paint in the nine gardens. The villa is also the venue for the annual summer opera festival Les Opéra Azuriales.
Source: Nice Côte d'Azur tourist office. The villa is closed on certain days, among them 14 and 25 December 2026 – check before you travel.
05On Cap-Ferrat
The villa is on avenue Ephrussi de Rothschild, with the rest of the peninsula laid out before you. The Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat and Villa Santo Sospir are just a few minutes away. You'll find more destinations on the coast among our Riviera guides at metromode.co.
