La Pausa

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LA PAUSA

Roderick Cameron described of Chanel's Riviera LA PAUSA in The Golden Riviera,as “large low-ceilinged rooms sparsely furnished with handsome pieces of Spanish and Provençal furniture.” Cameron's Riviera La Fiorentina on Cap Ferrat was another villa built for lavish entertaining & grand play.

 

“The garden was equally simple, planted with lavender and rosemary and all around, the smoky light filtering through centuries-old olives. Chanel had a wonderful sense of luxury and great taste.” Roderick Cameron

La Pausa saw the famous & infamous pass through her brick Romanesque arches, Stravinsky, Cocteau, Picasso,Iribe,Dalí and Visconti. 

Architect Robert Streitz built LA PAUSA high on a hill with a view of the coast in 1928 for Mlle. & her paramour Hugh Grosvenor, the second Duke of Westminster. Streitz kept it simple-much like CHANEL'S fashion aesthetic- but grand- designing four levels of 10,010 square feet.

La Pausa took its inspiration from the Cistercian convent orphanage of Chanel's adolescence. A dramatic stone staircase sweeps up from the grand hall & a cloister surrounds the outdoor courtyard. 

Chanel maintained a separate suite with a view of her 10 acre empire situated near the town of Menton. Her bedroom,as she left it, was maintained through the years when the Reves owned La Pausa. Wrought iron bed & pink draping dominated the boiserie suite. The Duke's stamp remains on La Pausa in the lighting of the unassuming entry-the crown motif from the Westminster coat of arms.

read about The Reves collection here.
& here

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