St Michele
Belle Époque

The villa

The Belle Époque, in the heart of the village

Behind its carved white façade, its palms and its sweeping balustraded steps, St Michele is a substantial villa of almost 400 square metres in the centre of Vallauris, the old pottery town where Picasso lived and worked. The bakeries, restaurants and shops are all a short walk away.

The house has been restored to a high, modern standard while keeping its period character: tall shuttered windows, ornate plaster ceilings and pale stone floors. The salon is furnished with deep sofas and armchairs, a library sitting room has shelves of books and a fireplace, and the dining room gathers around a round table beneath a shell chandelier. The kitchen is sleek and fully fitted, with steel-framed glass doors.

The bedrooms are spread over three floors. Up in the eaves, with beams, skylights and walls of bare stone, they share a sitting room of their own. The bathrooms are generous, one with a corner bath and a separate shower.

On the garden level, a veranda terrace with lounge sofas runs along the front of the house, and a walled garden hides a 5-metre pool with sun loungers, a long dining table and potted olive and box trees: drinks on the veranda, candlelit dinners in the garden. The beaches of Golfe-Juan, with some of the finest sand on the Riviera, Juan-les-Pins and Cap d'Antibes are close by, and Cannes and Antibes are only ten minutes away.