Has anybody here visited Villefranche or, better still, does anyone here live there?
I'm thinking of nipping over this year to soak up the vibe and see how close I can get to Nellcote.
Any information as to what it's like and good places to stay for a few days would be very much appreciated.

I went two years ago. You can right up close to the front gates and can view the house from various locations around the bay. Occasionally you can get lucky and find the front gate open. I did once but didn't tresspass - but took some photos through the gate. If you walk further along into St Jean Cap Ferrat you can find the signpost that Keith had his photo taken with Marlon in front of as well as the cafe where Keith was pictured about to be served a meal.

I was living close by a couple years ago and went over there. One of the workmen let me in and I walked through the garden. It's in much better condition now than in the Stones' photos.

To whom does the house belong now? Does anybody know?....and does this person know what has happened 44 years ago in this building?

The gates used to allow you to look in. But now they have been "meshed" so it's not visible to look into the gardens - I got lucky. I was staying just over the road/railway line in an apartment complex.

A short clip of my visit in 2007:

[www.youtube.com]



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-06-07 19:35 by django.

THere was a very informative thread on this very topic on IORR a while back. It included a link from an estate agents whow were selling the house and had photos of the exterior and gardens. It obviously looked very different to 1971 and was I think owned by a wealthy russian who didn't appear to be aware of the historic links of the house to the Stones.

I keep meaning to make the pilgrimage myself and would be content to just stand at the gates....also check out YouTube as there is at least one film of fans visiting the house.

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GiorgioGomelsky
To whom does the house belong now? Does anybody know?....and does this person know what has happened 44 years ago in this building?

Don't know who they are but I've heard they are not Stones fans. No doubt they know the history of the property, probably cost them a half million extra francs at the time of purchase! I can just imagine all the times they have come home to find people staring through the front gate, dreaming about the summer of 1971.

There was a thread here a couple years ago which included modern photos of inside the villa. I think it was from some magazine article where someone was graciously allowed in for a tour.

peace

Then (1971) and Now (2011) : [darmefashion.blogspot.com]

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2000 LYFH
Then (1971) and Now (2011) : [darmefashion.blogspot.com]

Thanks. Certainly a beautiful property but who can deny it wasn't a bit more cozy and welcoming with that merry band of freaks running around playing guitars and dropping their cigarette ashes in the flower pots!

It's too bad someone can't buy that place and turn it into a Stones museum of sorts. The images and stories from Nellcote are such a HUGE part of Stones lore and an important part of their history, it's kind of a shame to see it so sterile and polished. (insert set list joke here)

peace

Anyone know what the price would be if it went on the market?

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Naturalust

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GiorgioGomelsky
To whom does the house belong now? Does anybody know?....and does this person know what has happened 44 years ago in this building?

Don't know who they are but I've heard they are not Stones fans. No doubt they know the history of the property, probably cost them a half million extra francs at the time of purchase! I can just imagine all the times they have come home to find people staring through the front gate, dreaming about the summer of 1971.

There was a thread here a couple years ago which included modern photos of inside the villa. I think it was from some magazine article where someone was graciously allowed in for a tour.

peace

it's very likely they paid *less* for the property because of the nuisance of fans hanging around the gates, the cost of beefing up and maintaining security, etc.

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Turner68

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Naturalust

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GiorgioGomelsky
To whom does the house belong now? Does anybody know?....and does this person know what has happened 44 years ago in this building?

Don't know who they are but I've heard they are not Stones fans. No doubt they know the history of the property, probably cost them a half million extra francs at the time of purchase! I can just imagine all the times they have come home to find people staring through the front gate, dreaming about the summer of 1971.

There was a thread here a couple years ago which included modern photos of inside the villa. I think it was from some magazine article where someone was graciously allowed in for a tour.

peace

it's very likely they paid *less* for the property because of the nuisance of fans hanging around the gates, the cost of beefing up and maintaining security, etc.

With real estate brokers involved? In my experience all the possibly good attributes are exploited to the max while nuisances are carefully hidden and swept under the rug.

I don't know the history of the property but it would indeed be interesting to talk to the folks who cleaned up after the Stones left. I understand they left in a hurry under suspicious circumstances.

I remember Anita description (in Life?) that they had escape routes planned in the even of a probable raid on the villa. Out the window, across the roof, onto the mobile truck and through the garden kind of stuff. Hilarious. But as someone once said, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't watching, and in the Stones case someone obviously was.

In any case glad they escaped, who knows what would have happened to the Stones if they were busted in 1971. Certainly the great 1972 tour would have been compromised.

peace

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Naturalust

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Turner68

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Naturalust

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GiorgioGomelsky
To whom does the house belong now? Does anybody know?....and does this person know what has happened 44 years ago in this building?

Don't know who they are but I've heard they are not Stones fans. No doubt they know the history of the property, probably cost them a half million extra francs at the time of purchase! I can just imagine all the times they have come home to find people staring through the front gate, dreaming about the summer of 1971.

There was a thread here a couple years ago which included modern photos of inside the villa. I think it was from some magazine article where someone was graciously allowed in for a tour.

peace

it's very likely they paid *less* for the property because of the nuisance of fans hanging around the gates, the cost of beefing up and maintaining security, etc.

With real estate brokers involved? In my experience all the possibly good attributes are exploited to the max while nuisances are carefully hidden and swept under the rug.

I don't know the history of the property but it would indeed be interesting to talk to the folks who cleaned up after the Stones left. I understand they left in a hurry under suspicious circumstances.

I remember Anita description (in Life?) that they had escape routes planned in the even of a probable raid on the villa. Out the window, across the roof, onto the mobile truck and through the garden kind of stuff. Hilarious. But as someone once said, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn't watching, and in the Stones case someone obviously was.

In any case glad they escaped, who knows what would have happened to the Stones if they were busted in 1971. Certainly the great 1972 tour would have been compromised.

peace

in my experience people spending millions on property take the time to google it before the deal closes. kind of hard to sweep under the rug that there are creepy stalker fans swarming all over the property you're thinking about buying when you google "nellcote villefranche"

i agree that someone should buy it and turn it into a museum.

Absolutely beautiful part of France. I've travelled along the Riviera 4 or 5 times and I always stop off to look at the house.

I know a lot of you live far away, in different parts of the world, and won't have had the chance to visit; Villefranche is a beautiful little town, and a munch and a glass at one of the cafes overlooking the harbour, gazing across to where Nellcote is situated, is a real pleasure, particularly in warm weather. The last time I was there, to coincide with the Stones show in Nice in 2006, I spent a whole day in Villefranche and swam all the way around to what I presume was the lower garden gate from the house onto the beach, where I imagine the jetty from which Keith used to launch his boat was situated. Having read and watched so much about the making of Exile, being there was so evocative - I really wanted to be able to travel to 1971! Daft...


Declan

Yes. Much nicer than Cannes which should be avoided. Have you visited the cinqueterre?

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Turner68
Yes. Much nicer than Cannes which should be avoided. Have you visited the cinqueterre?

No, and I must say I'd never even heard of it. Just looked it up and it appears to be beautiful. Another one for the list - thank you, Turner68.

Declan

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DD
Absolutely beautiful part of France. I've travelled along the Riviera 4 or 5 times and I always stop off to look at the house.

I know a lot of you live far away, in different parts of the world, and won't have had the chance to visit; Villefranche is a beautiful little town, and a munch and a glass at one of the cafes overlooking the harbour, gazing across to where Nellcote is situated, is a real pleasure, particularly in warm weather. The last time I was there, to coincide with the Stones show in Nice in 2006, I spent a whole day in Villefranche and swam all the way around to what I presume was the lower garden gate from the house onto the beach, where I imagine the jetty from which Keith used to launch his boat was situated. Having read and watched so much about the making of Exile, being there was so evocative - I really wanted to be able to travel to 1971! Daft...


Declan

Totally agree.
Was there in April this year and was lucky with the weather!
I was also having a beer at one of those cafés overlooking the bay... very relaxing. The water is crystal clear also.
Lovely little town... was more pleasant than Nice & Monaco.
You can only imagine what the band got up to...

I did trek up the stairs and head towards Nellcote...felt like a bit of an idiot taking picks of the front gate.
Yes its all meshed up and it's hard to see thru the gate.
But I just loved the area rather than drooling over the house.
My wife also couldn't understand why I would be interested in a house... ah well I guess it had to be done whilst I was in the area.

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Eleanor Rigby
My wife also couldn't understand why I would be interested in a house... ah well I guess it had to be done whilst I was in the area.

I was impressed by my gf's patience with me when we walked with tortured feet between Edith Grove, Cheyne Walk and Battersea Power Station in London a few weeks ago.

In many respects the town is relatively untouched by the years since 1971. Not difficult to get the vibe that would have been present during the making of exile.

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DD

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Turner68
Yes. Much nicer than Cannes which should be avoided. Have you visited the cinqueterre?

No, and I must say I'd never even heard of it. Just looked it up and it appears to be beautiful. Another one for the list - thank you, Turner68.

Declan

Yeah done the walk about 15 times as I used to leave about 2 3 hours drive from the start Rio Maggiore. Beautiful walk

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MrThompsonWooft
In many respects the town is relatively untouched by the years since 1971. Not difficult to get the vibe that would have been present during the making of exile.

Agreed.
A great place to simply relax... and record an album!

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MichaelLassen
Anyone know what the price would be if it went on the market?

According to this article, it went for $128,000,000 in 2006.



[www.messynessychic.com]

about Nellcote-

imagine the discussions during the sale, for whomever owns it now:

"and you must expect the occasional or likely often, attempts by Rolling Stones fans to visit this property.."

The following was published in the Star.com by Peter Howell a Movie Critic on May 21 2010

Howell: Stones fans not welcome at French 'Exile' mansion
Fans still go by the French mansion that was once a Nazi hangout and the scene of the recording of the Stones’ Exile on Main Street. But the new owner would prefer they didn’t.


VILLEFRANCHE-SUR-MER, FRANCE — Behold the gates of rock ’n’ roll heaven and hell.

Through these massive rods of black-and-gold iron passed the Rolling Stones and their retinue in the summer of 1971, seeking refuge from the Britain taxman and from their increasingly complicated lives.

These gates are the frontal access to Villa Nellcôte, the place where Keith Richards shot up, John Lennon threw up and the Stones made Exile On Main Street. The double LP vinyl album is acclaimed by many pop music fans as being not only the Stones’ masterpiece, but arguably the defining statement of the rock era. A digital remaster of Exile was released this past week, along with newly discovered extra tracks, and the hoopla includes the Cannes Film Festival debut of a documentary titled Stones In Exile.

The Stones came to the south of France, here in this waterfront billionaires’ preserve, to shut the world off for a while. They chose a good hideout: The place is difficult to find (many people wrongly assume it’s in nearby Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat) and its address at No. 10, avenue Louise Bordes, is on a narrow road that doesn’t exactly beckon to tourists — but it also doesn’t stop them.

With the tragedy of Altamont’s concert murder 18 months earlier still fresh in their minds, and band relations torn and frayed and problems with drugs, money and women, the Stones were badly in need of rejuvenation in the hot summer of ’71.

They holed up in Villa Nellcôte, a 16-room mansion built by a banker in the late 1890s.

It wasn’t the most likely of places for Richards, Mick Jagger, Charlie Watts, Mick Taylor and Bill Wyman to record the band’s 10th album. Villa Nellcôte’s hard marble columns and dank basement were less than ideal for optimum sound and delicate instruments. The band used a recording mobile studio packed into a truck parked outside, a rolling powerhouse later hailed by Deep Purple in “Smoke On The Water.”

Richards had rented Nellcôte for its privacy — huge palm trees and a woodland preserve keep it free from prying eyes —and because he was amused that the place had been used as the local Gestapo headquarters during the Nazi occupation of France in World War II. The metal grates for the heating vents of the villa still bore swastika emblems.

As Robert Greenfield tells it in his recent book Exile on Main St.: A Season in Hell with the Rolling Stones, Nellcôte attracted beautiful people and major tensions, that warm summer of ‘71.

Jagger had recently married Nicaraguan model Bianca Pérez Morena de Macías, having also recently abandoned girlfriend Marianne Faithfull. His attention was divided and his patience was wearing thin with the rock-star shenanigans of his band mates — particularly Richards, Jagger’s main creative partner, who kept vampire hours and often dozed off from the affects of his increasing dependency on heroin. Jagger also resented the presence of ex-Byrds guitarist Gram Parsons, a country rocker whom Keith had befriended and whom Mick viewed as a hanger-on.

Richards had his own personal issues. He didn’t like Bianca, whom he judged to be a snooty gold-digger. He was trying to be a good father to his 2-year-old son Marlon, borne to him by model Anita Pallenberg, a friend of Faithfull’s, whom Mick had reportedly “plundered” (as the newly issued Exile outtake “Plundered My Soul” strongly suggests.)

Always sociable and at all hours, Richards invited along any number of drug dealers, fellow musicians and general hangers-on to the Nellcôte clambake. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were amongst the visitors, with Lennon reportedly hurling on the front steps of the mansion after one refreshment too many with Richards.

Out of this chaos came the four sides and 18 songs of Exile On Main Street, a sprawling slab of rock, blues, country, folks, gospel and soul that was initially panned by many critics (the “swampy” sound of Nellcôte bothered some), and which yielded just two semi-hits: “Tumbling Dice” and “Happy.”

Yet the album has gained mythic status since its 1972 release, influencing everyone from the punks of The Clash to girl-power diva Liz Phair. Exile was often cited by the grunge rockers of the 1990s as the only classic rock album they could enthusiastically support, and “Happy,” with its gravelly, Richards-lead vocal, has become a concert anthem for the Stones’ axeman.

“I think tales of its universal derision have been largely exaggerated,” said Stephen Kijak, the U.S. filmmaker whose Cannes premiere doc Stones In Exile is loaded with unseen footage documenting the album’s birth at Nellcôte.

“The album was huge and the tour was massive,” he told the Star.

“It’s a double album. People didn’t make a lot of double albums back then, and it was notoriously hard to mix: It was recorded in the most unusual circumstances, but that’s what gives the sound its character. I’d like to think it will be appreciated by a new generation that can actually get their heads around it as a complete work, and not just by hand picking songs off iTunes or something. In a perfect world, it will help encourage a re-appreciation of the album as an art form.”

Kijak tried but failed to gain access to Nellcôte for his movie, said Didier Gayraud, a Riviera local and Stones fan who assisted him with Nellcôte.

Gayraud told the Star the current owners of Nellcôte don’t encourage fans to visit, unlike the way Elvis Presley’s admirers are invited into Graceland in Memphis.

“The house was bought five years ago by a Russian who paid 100 million euros ($128 million). The house has a swimming pool now and the next villa has been bought to make a larger property. I don’t think that the owner is interested in the Stones,” Gayraud said.

Fans come to visit the property, but they aren’t welcome — a man in black emerged from house to shoo the Star away after a few too many photos were snapped.

The main mansion of Nellcôte is set way back from the access road, along the Riviera waterfront, and it is hidden by a smaller building that apparently serves as a guest house. It’s difficult to see the mansion even from the local beaches, because access is severely limited. A full view can only be seen from the water or air, although Google Earth provides a dandy aerial view of the property.

If anything, Nellcôte is about to become even more imposing. There is construction currently underway on either side of the property that may make the limited sightlines even more constrained.

In contrast, the legend of Exile On Main Street continues to grow, something that is a mystery for Jagger, who has long maintained the album is “overrated.”

Stones fans beg to differ, though, and Kijak thinks he knows why.

“People seem to see that album, and the circumstances in which it was made, as the apotheosis of the rock and roll lifestyle; the ultimate fantasy of living the music — they were kings, but still outlaws, and the album is steeped in all the mysterious contradictions that goes with that.”

Kijak had the full support of the band in making his film, with access to outtakes from the unreleased documentary of the era by Robert Franks (who also designed the photo montage album cover) that is known under the publication-friendly title CS Blues. Jagger showed up at Cannes this week for a Q&A session following the debut screening of Stones In Exile.

“It’s just one of those albums that carries with it the weight of myth,” Kijak continued.

“And, it’s an amazing piece of music, almost a culmination of everything the Stones had explored musically up to that point, a dense, murky tour through the American idioms they always celebrated, but sleazier, darker.

“Given the year it came out, it’s easy to say that it signalled the end of the ’60s, that it was a reaction to Altamont, or that it signalled the dark times ahead, and perhaps it does — but it endures as a musical statement, and is still rich and rewarding some 40 years on, and that’s just down to the music.”

I stayed in the South of France for two weeks last summer. My hotel was literally two blocks away from Villefranche. I walked down an alley way and I was there standing at the gate. The gates are big and the plants/trees make it hard to get alot of photographs. I'm 6'4 and I was able to jump and see above the wall and gates. You could see the top parts of the house pretty easy. If you are at the front gate, you can continue walking to a staircase that will take you to a parking lot by the water. You can see the back of Villefranche at a distance from there and see the private dock area. I did see someone walking up the stairs from the dock when I was there. Beautiful place. The Stones must've drove the neighbors crazy! There are other ville's very close.

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Anita Pallenberg, a friend of Faithfull’s, whom Mick had reportedly “plundered” (as the newly issued Exile outtake “Plundered My Soul” strongly suggests.)

Very interesting. The lyrics do seem to support this.


Can you believe it,
I've won no medals
In this love game.
I've been resting on my laurels,
I'm a bad loser,
I'm a yard off my pace.

I smell rubber
And I soon discover
That you're gone for good.
My indiscretions
Made a bad impression,
Guess I was misunderstood.

I thought you needed my lovin',
But it's my heart that you stole.
I thought you wanted my money,
But you plundered my soul.
(Plundered my soul)

I started askin' around,
But your friends'
Pretty lips were sealed.
I wrote a letter
Full of trite confessions
About wounds that heal.

I heard some gossip,
You'd become an alcoholic,
You were dryin' out.
So I phoned every clinic
In the Yellow Pages,
Not a trace I found.

I thought you needed my lovin',
But it's my heart that you stole.
I thought you wanted my money,
But you plundered my soul.
(Plundered my soul)

I hate quittin',
But I'm close to admittin'
I'm a sorry case.
But on quiet reflection,
My sad rejection's
Not a total disgrace.

But I do miss your quick repartee
And the smile
That lights up your face.
You'll be a hard act to follow,
A bitter pill to swallow,
You'll be tough, you'll be tough to replace.

I thought you wanted my lovin',
But it's my heart that you stole.
You were a trick up my sleeve,
My ace in the hole.
I thought you wanted my money,
But you plundered my soul.

Oh, plundered my soul
Oh yeah (plundered my soul)
You plundered my soul
Yeah, yeah (plundered my soul)
Oh, yes, yes, yes you, baby
(Plundered my soul)

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Bliss

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Anita Pallenberg, a friend of Faithfull’s, whom Mick had reportedly “plundered” (as the newly issued Exile outtake “Plundered My Soul” strongly suggests.)

Very interesting. The lyrics do seem to support this.

Oh God, all we need is additional evidence for Marianne to feel even more important about her role in the Stones creative process. Don't tell her lest she demand royalties and add this one to her Stones storybook.

peace

Marianne? The lyrics are very Keith-esque to me. According to the article above, it's possibly about Anita's affair with Mick.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2015-06-08 22:35 by Bliss.

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Bliss
Marianne? The lyrics are very Keith-esque to me. According to the article above, it's possibly about Anita's affair with Mick.

Hmmm. I must have misunderstood. But the lyrics seem to support Micks relationship with Marianne more than anything to do with Anita, to me.

Things like indiscretions, wanting his money, being tough to replace, having to learn through gossip about her current state, etc.

Of course these things are not often to be taken literally but read through the lyrics thinking Marianne and Mick and they seem to fit a bit to well.

peace