Heading off to VFS this year and plan to see what I can of Nellcote. I know that I can't get in and that views are limited but any help / tips that you can share would be gratefully received.

Thanks

Yah, be aware that someone does live there, and I wouldn't hassle 'em. I'm sure that especially since 'The Stones in Exile' stuff has come out, the locals must see us Stones freaks daily. Google, Bing, etc, and you should find some useful guidance. Lemme know what you find, it's on my Bucket List too!

You can't see much from the gate.

A couple of years ago I spent some time in Saint Jean Cap Ferrat. I used to run around the Cap to the Palge de Passable, then swim form there to the Villa.

It took some time to understand which one was the right villa: all Tarle's photographs are black and white.

In any case, nice to be there!

Since you are there, in Saint Jean there is a bar called La Civette that allegedly was frequented by keith. At least, this is what they told me when I inquired about the photograph of Keith hanging over the counter. Don't know if it is a tourist trip tale. Good cocktails anyway.

C

you can see it better from the water. if you don't have access to a boat there's a boat tour out of Nice port that goes by, or have a meal at one of the VSM quai-side restaurants... you'll have a view of Nellcote across the bay.

What would you like to know?
Directions? The best angles to see the villa? Other Stones related stuff in the neighbourhood?

Its my favorite place to be.

Italians Pirates from the sea:-)

[www.rollingstonesitalia.com]

Sici

Here's a short clip I made from my visit in 2007 with all possible angles I guess:

[www.iorr.org]

The athmosphere of Villefranche Sur Mer is quite something.

When you go there you won´t see much of the villa either way. But from sea is your best bet as stated by others.
The easiest is of course walking to the far eastern end of the beach and take a look at the steps coming down to the beach from the villa and then backtrack & walk up the flight of stairs to Avenue Louise Bordes. The iron gate is splendid, but the view is sealed of as you know.

I would not have tried anything "stupid" as the surveillance is substantial

You can rent small boats, paddle-, motor- or chauffeur-types in the harbor by the hour. Real simple. It will take you out in front of the villa, thats the views you see in "Stones in Exile".

From the old town in Villefranche and the Citadelle there is a nice view too albeit distant across the bay, as the villa is angled sort of south west.


There are several nice spots the band spent the summer of 71 in the neighborhood.
While in the Old Town you should check out the Old Square by Bar Restaurant des Palmiers. This is where Keith and Anita (++) sits in a lot of photos, reading the Mafia newspaper. This is also the site for the fleamarked Keith and Anita attends in the the photos by Thomas Beyl.
Its true that La Civette in St Cap Ferrat was a hang out of Keiths, there are several photos to back this up. If you google it (streetview) you can see the "Cadillac" cafe (then known as "Cappa" ) in the background and the infamous street sign where Keith and Marlon sits in the Tarle photos just to the side of it.

The Beaulieu harbour, the St Cap Ferrat harbour, The Dauphin Club is also near by, all frequented that summer. St Tropez, Antibes, Grasse, Monaco & Menton were also visited by them, seen in the Tarle/Cooper/Sanchez material, and if you are gonna travel around, I can give you heads up to where the photos in those cities were taken.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-04 14:12 by RobberBride.

I am hoping to get there next summer. I think I read on IORR somewhere that it's some wealthy Russians who own it and apparently they didn't purchase it for its Stones connections and are not welcoming of Stones fans.

I hope that has changed and they throw the gates open for you to have a walk around the grounds...but don;t hold your breath. I wonder if somewhere in the grounds there are guitar picks that were lost at the time - now that would be cool to find.

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RobberBride
What would you like to know?
Directions? The best angles to see the villa? Other Stones related stuff in the neighbourhood?

Its my favorite place to be.

As much Stones related stuff as possible please.

Did you get your answers?

was there 2009, but only in front of the gate. still a cool experience somehow.
the funny thing was, that at the tourist information they didnt know what i was talking about.... ;-)

I was there a few weeks ago; the view across from Villefranche was good enough for me. Bring some binoculars if you want a closer look.

In 2006 I took a tour boat from Nice and the guide pointed in the general direction of Nellcote and exclaimed "That ees zee house of Meek Jagger!!!"

How do they say: GET OFF MY LAWN! ....in french?

one needs to understand some basic french, right?

What do you expect to see?

Funny btw, in the clip posted above Sweet Virginia was used as the music, but that wasn't even recorded in Nellcote.

I was inside Nellcote back in those fabled days.
It has had a lot of work done inside and out since then,
Outside restored...new handsome iron fence.

The view AngusMcB spoke of is SUPERLATIVE.

If you're not driving, take the train from Nice...short walk to Nellcote.

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stonesrule
I was inside Nellcote back in those fabled days.
It has had a lot of work done inside and out since then,
Outside restored...new handsome iron fence.

The view AngusMcB spoke of is SUPERLATIVE.

If you're not driving, take the train from Nice...short walk to Nellcote.

I´ve met quite a few who have been inside...but no one seems to be able to paint a picture, so to speak, about the layout of the cellars. Some speak of one floor of cellar but with a mezzanine or staircase further down to other rooms. Do you remember?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2016-01-04 14:13 by RobberBride.

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RobberBride

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stonesrule
I was inside Nellcote back in those fabled days.
It has had a lot of work done inside and out since then,
Outside restored...new handsome iron fence.

The view AngusMcB spoke of is SUPERLATIVE.

If you're not driving, take the train from Nice...short walk to Nellcote.

I´ve met quite a few who have been inside...but no one seems to be able to paint a picture, so to speak, about the layout of the cellars. Some speak of one floor of cellar but with a mezzanine or staircase further down to other rooms, where the fabled tunnels was about to start, according to Anita. Do you remember?
Also , is the iron gate/fence not the same as in 71?

At least I thinks so, I´ve spend a few minutes in front of 2 years ago, trying to catch the "spirit of nellcote" () and it was looking the same as in those ancient videos ...

I've never been there.
below a photo taken from google earth.
Is it the right place ? if it is, it's very close to 10 avenue Louise Bordes

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jpasc95
I've never been there.
below a photo taken from google earth.
Is it the right place ? if it is, it's very close to 10 avenue Louise Bordes

it is, indeed .....

Villa Nellcote


video: [virtualglobetrotting.com]

Thanks guys. Great stuff. Will print off and read on the flight. Not expecting to see it all close up but didn't want to miss out on anything that is common knowledge. Cheers.

Here is Nellcote.
The mansion is located in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat.


Do not expect to get inside.

Angus, i have bad news, this days the black & gold front gate is covered, what makes that one can't look any more through to the garden, hope its only temporary.

But you can easily spend the afternoon on the beach below the villa, its free and a very nice place (mandrax place)




ps: please friendly people, stop talking about "this song was not recorded in Nellcote", or overdubing story .. the truth is boring

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stonesrule
I was inside Nellcote back in those fabled days.
It has had a lot of work done inside and out since then,
Outside restored...new handsome iron fence.

The view AngusMcB spoke of is SUPERLATIVE.

If you're not driving, take the train from Nice...short walk to Nellcote.

someone posted recent pictures of the inside[either here or on dougs site,not sure] and it looked amazing.it looked a bit like a place a bunch of young people lived in the stones days but the new owner had it looking like m.o.n.e.y.,and lots of style.

i picture the place being much smaller than you would think,when i saw graceland i couldnt believe how little it was.with the big pillars and driveway you would think it was something much larger.

some people think anita was crazy talking about tunnels but i'm willing to bet she was correct,if the nazis were stationed there tunnels wouldnt be out of the question.

I wonder if Keith ever returned to visit after the early 70 ´s

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lem motlow
i picture the place being much smaller than you would think,when i saw graceland i couldnt believe how little it was.with the big pillars and driveway you would think it was something much larger.

It's 16 rooms in total I believe. It was sold in the early 2000's for $8 million to an Italian banker, now it's owned by Russians I believe.

I always thought Richards rented it until early 1972, but in 'Life' Richards states he had to rent it as long as the French where investigating the drugs traffic claim they had on him. I believe he rented it until late '74 or so.

Mathijs

i think keith kept paying the rent on the place but didnt live there,it was for some legal reason to do with the bust.


16 rooms isnt really that big,some of these mega-mansions today have 16 bathrooms.
i think 6000 sq feet is the cutoff for a house being an actual mansion so it would most likely qualify. having said that,what an amazing place.hows that for a location, the entire setting looks like something out of a movie.

-maybe if some of the lunatics here can refrain from attacking her, stonesrule could tell us more about her time there with the stones.

Also the railway runs alongside the road at Nellcote - as legend has it where extra power for the recording studio was used.