Chateau de la Croe: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s Lavish Home in the French Riviera

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.