9 hours ago
Gabrielle Chanel's Idyllic Villa on the French Riviera Has Been Restored to Exactly the Way She Left It. Vogue Took A Look Inside
Dusk is settling over Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, and little puffs of red dust are flying into the jasmine-scented air as acclaimed dancers Boris Charmatz and Johanna Lenke move fluidly around the clay tennis court at La Pausa, the idyllic villa Gabrielle Chanel had designed according to her exacting specifications in 1929. It's hard to know what her paramour the Duke of Westminster would have made of the cinematic—and supremely physical—duet that unfolded in front of a crowd of artists, curators, collectors, and patrons on Friday evening, but he doubtless observed some more traditional athletic confrontations during his summers spent with Chanel on the French Riviera.
The grand hall at La Pausa, Gabrielle Chanel's clifftop retreat overlooking the Bay of Monaco.
Courtesy of Chanel
The designer made her clifftop retreat La Pausa (meaning 'the pause'), a haven for artists and intellectuals in the 1930s and '40s, inviting the likes of Jean Cocteau, Pierre Reverdy and Luchino Visconti to while away summer evenings among the ancient olive trees and beds of fragrant lavender sloping gently towards the Bay of Monaco. 'After dinner,' reads a Vogue report of a night at La Pausa in the late 1930s, 'the rugs are suddenly rolled up… Salvador Dalí amuses himself with a large borrowed black hat, mimicking a character from the Inquisition. The Duchess of Gramont, draped in brocade, jingles her Indian jewels, while painter Christian Bérard sports an Easter egg on top of his head, and Coco ties wide whimsical ribbons in her hair.'
