The Cap d'Antibes peninsula of the Côte d'Azur has, since
the 19th century, attracted millionaires and celebrities from all over
Europe earning the moniker as the millionaires’ playground. It surely was a favorite holiday destination of the moneyed and the
titled that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor preferred it as the place to live after he abdicated. When they were hunting for a home of their own, the duchess
fell for the Chateau de la Croe.
American publisher Sir Pomeroy Burton commissioned the
construction of the chateau in 1926. The elegant colonial-style villa had 17
bedrooms and 8 bathrooms and the couple
initially signed a two year lease of the property for £2,000 a year.
Prior to their transfer to the sunny Cap d'Antibes, the couple initially
stayed at Chateau de la Maye in Versailles, which was their home for four
months.
The villa was white with green shutters and red-tiled roofs.
Set in 12 acres of cool woodland and lawns, and facing the sea over some rocks,
no other house could be seen from its windows. With these barriers from the
public, the couple hoped that they will be left untroubled by the outsiders.
The chateau was described by the duke's secretary as
"dream-like... cool, serene and aloof." Entering the massive home leads on into "looking
straight across the whole length of the house and through the tall French
windows at the back on the woods and lawns beyond the terrace. On the right of
the hall, suspended from the lower gallery, its rich red and gold colours
softly floodlit, was the Duke's banner from the Chapel of Knights of the Garter
in St.George's Chapel at Windsor... antique chairs had red leather seats and
black and gold backs... The broad terrace, facing the sea, ran the whole length
of the house...The great rooms were French in character. The high ceilings and
walls were elaborately moulded in white and gold.Tall mirrored doors, standing
always open, led from one room to another and looking-glass covered some of the
panelling."
The duchess wanted the chateau to be light and airy, so she
installed huge mirrors above great fireplaces that reflected objects back and
forth. The duchess had a fancy for mirrors, it delighted her.
"As she walked about La Croe, she would glance in the
glass-covered panels.... and if she stood talking to you in her eyes would
often wander away to the nearest mirror, so noticeably that some of her friends
called her "Wallis through the Looking Glass" It had the charming
appearance of an English country house in a French setting... It was all done
in a remarkably short time causing Rebecca West to comment admiringly,
"There are not too many women who can pick up the keys to a rented house,
raddled by long submission to temporary inmates, and make it look as if a
family of good taste had been living there for two to three centuries. The
duchess' impeccable taste in interior decorating was complimented by two
experts, Lady Sybil Colefax and Lady Mendl.
Decorating the property fit for the duke's kingly stature
meant transporting the his paintings, silver, porcelain, crystal and other
furniture which he used to decorate Fort Belvedere. The task of recreating a
palatial feel for the duke was left on the hands of the duchess and no amount
was spared to achieve this goal. Having intimated with her husband at the Fort,
the duchess knew well what to do.
The duchess had an eye for interior decorating and so she
embarked on renovating the house, transforming it into a home befitting her
station. Her impeccable taste was such that author Rebecca West commented:
"There are not many women ... who can pick up the keys to a rented house,
raddled by long submission to temporary inmates, and make it look as if a
family of good taste had been living there for two or three centuries."
When the chateau’s renovation was ongoing the couple opted
to stay nearby, renting out suites at the hotel Cap d’Antibes.
"At the moment they are living at the Hotel Cap
d'Antibes which has the Pavillion Eden Roc attached to it, with both a
wonderful natural pool and an artificial piscine where the fashionable
Americans bathe in the season. The Duke and Duchess are staying at the Hotel
while their chateau is being renovated."
When refurbishment was done, the duke and duchess moved in
and frequently hosted lavish receptions with three-three liveried footmen - all
blond- at their provide Edward with the kingly service he was used to. Guests
were surprised to see the duke wearing full Highland dress at dinner. To her
amazement, Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, wondered how was he able to hear the
balmy climate with that dress. Pipers would come out to play the pipes after
the dinner, which seemed rather out of place in this beach setting. The noble
guests later quipped "it was all probably more suited to the misty glens
of Scotland than Antibes in high summer."
Here in their own little kingdom by the sea the Duke and
Duchess of Windsor quietly but grandly spent Christmas of 1938. In his book The Duchess of Windsor: The Uncommon Life of
Wallis Simpson, Greg King notes that the couple welcomed their guests, including
Lord and Lady Brownlow and their family, the Edward Custs, and Wallis' Aunt Bessie
to their rather cramped hall stuffed with trunks, boxes, cards and a
"huge" but sparsely decorated tree that Wallis imported from Paris a
week earlier. The Duchess hadn’t made up her mind on how it should look like,
so one of the guests, John McMullin, lent
her a hand until a white-and-silver motif was decided. The rest of the guests
worked with her until Christmas Eve to finish decorating the tree. On Christmas
morning, the hosts and their visitors headed to the nearby small, Anglican
church, the house of faith which the royal couple help to maintain for as long
as they leased la Croe.
In the afternoon, the Duchess of Windsor would assemble her
retinue of servants in the chateau's great hall. With much excitement she
handed them gifts which she painstakingly shopped and wrapped. She and the duke
would stand together in front of the Christmas tree and then receive each one of
their household staff and their respective families.
The couple would shake hands
and exchange pleasantries with their retainers. Then, the duchess would
hand over the gifts, which, according to King, ranged from practical household
items to more lavish but novel stuffs, like "alligator skin wallets and
handbags for women, gold cuff links and tie clips for men." It was a
wonderful world which Wallis created for herself. She and Edward were, after
all, the king and queen in their world and their servants, their loyal
subjects.
At the height of World War II, the couple were sent by the
British government to the Caribbean, where the Duke of Windsor served as
governor-governor of the Bahamas from 1940 until 1945. The Windsors gave up the
chateau in 1949 when they moved to their Parisian villa. They also maintained their country home, Le Moulin de la Tuileries, where they spent weekends. The Burtons later sold
the house for £120,000.
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