At first,Saint Jean was a small city with small grouped houses around the church and the port,the ones who lived there were fishermans and farmers.But along with the development of the zone became a place preffered by the "good world" from Nisa who started to make there small vacations on the weekend.The population of this small village explodes when the king Leopold the second of Belgium arrives.
From 1950 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat becomes also a fancy summer resort and celebrities all over the world visit it: Edith Piaf, Charlie CHaplin, Elisabeth Tayor and Richard Burton, Jean Paul Belmondo, Roger Moore, David Niven.Romy Schneider acctuay married here in 1996.Of course also great politicians are on the list who visited here or even posses at a certain moment proprieties: The General de Gaulle, Valey Giscard d'Estaing, Winston Churchill, George Bush, Bill Clinton or Boris Eltin.
Also famous painters where living already here.Henri Matiss,Pabl Picasso and Marc Chagall.But the one who really left his mark on the village is Jean Cocteau who painted the walls of la Vila Santo Sospir.
Beatrice was the daughter of the barone Alphonse de Rothschild a banker and art collector.At only the age of 19 he married Maurice Ephrussi-a russian banker much older than her.Sadly he was addicted to gambling where he lost big amounts of money.So,Beatrice pressed by his family who wanted to protect their money she had to divorce.Affter that she focused her attention on one of his big passions: art collection.
In 1905 her father died and Beatrice inherited his big fortune.Then she decieded to build there,in Cap Ferrat,the house of her dreams.She discovered the perfect place and was seduced by the beautifull of the surroundings.She wasn't decisve but when she finds out The King Leopold the Second is intrested into buying that land, she buys it.
The building last until 1912 because the domain was expending on 7 ha/17,2 acres of land.Beatrice was very hard to please because she wanted her dream house to be perfect so when something didn't look right they had to demolish and build again.
There are 9 different gardens everyone with a different theme.The biggest one of them,The French Garden has in the middle a fountain where at every 20 minute,the water is dancing to classical music.
-The French Garden
-The Japanese Garden
-Garden Florentina
-The Spanish Garden
-Garden de Serves
It's sad to discover that affter she invested that much time,effort and money to create the house of her dreams,she spent very little time there,preferring the roulette tables from Monte Carlo and her house there - Vila Rose de France - Affter his husband death in 1916 wich she continued to love despite the divorce that she was forced to because of his family,she lost the interest in this domain.The history of this house and Beatrice,is the perfect example for us of the quote "money can't buy happines"
Charlotte-Beatrice de Rotschild,on his full name died at the age of 75.He donated everything at the Academy of Beauty Art from France with the condition of this house remaining intact just like it was when she was alive.