Open daily 15 February - 1 November, 10am - 6pm (closes at 7pm in July and August)
2 November-14 February, open weekends and school holidays, 10am - 6pm, weekdays 2pm - 6pm (ground floor and gardens only)
Guided visit of first-floor collections, 14FF/person
Party rates
Admission:
Full rate: 50 FF
Concessions (students, unwaged, children aged 7-17, families with 3 children or more): 38 FF
Family rate (2 adults & 2 childrens): 149 FF
Childrens (under 7, third child (any age)): free. Schools and other group rates also available.
Added to JGarden:
7/21/2001
Last Updated:
5/4/2004
Sources:
JGarden Description:
Béatrice de Rothschild was born on 14 September 1864. The daughter of Leonora Rothschild and sister of Bettina Rothschild, she shared with them a somewhat unworldly appearance. According to the Rothschild Archive, "she was fond of the colour pink, which together with her prematurely white hair, suggested a soft, undefined character. The opposite was actually true. Béatrice could be authoritarian, capricious even, and was a woman of vision."
Being interested in the casino at Monte Carlo, Béatrice had this estate built in the South of France. The villa proper is an art museum showcasing both her own choices and the pieces she inherited from her father. The exterior is filled with thematic gardens showcasing European and Asian cultural landscapes. The dominant color is pink and she held receptions here in which she sought to recreate the splendor of Marie-Antoinette's court at Versailles.
After her death on 7 April 1934, Béatrice's properties in Paris and Reux but the Cap Ferrat estate was given to the Académie des Beaux Arts (Fine Arts Academy) and became Musée Ephrussi de Rothschild (Béatrice had married a Russian banker, Maurice Ephrussi in 1883 and though the marriage ended, she kept his name alongside her own.)
The estate was built upon the narrowest point of the isthmus of Cap Ferrat and looks over the bay of Villefranche to the west and over the Mediterranean to Italy on the east. The villa proper was constructed under the personal supervision of Beatrice herself and houses an eclectic collection of fine art, furniture, and porcelain. It is still open to the public and was bequeathed with the condition that it be "kept the essence of a private salon". The gardens include classic French, Spanish, Florentine, rock, Japanese, exotic plant, rose gardens and Provencal gardens. The Japanese garden offers a mixture of ceramic temples and pagodas, bamboo thickets and ornamental ponds surrounded by giant acanthus plants. It's definitely a Japanese garden adapted to the mediterranean climate.
Since 1991, the site has been managed by the Culture Espaces Group, which specializes in cultual resource management at heritage buildings and sites. It is located between Nice and Monaco via the Basse Corniche (N98) road.
The awaited one's footsteps
Heard afar off;
Falling leaves.
http://www.villa-ephrussi.com/