That was 50 years ago.

The Rolling Stones decided to cross the Channel and seek refuge in the South of France. While Mick Jagger was charmed by the heights of the village of Biot, Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor by Cap d’Antibes and Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Keith Richards set his sights on one of the Riviera’s most legendary residences, just renovated by architect Joseph Karam: the Villa Nellcote.

A legendary villa on the Côte d’Azur

In 1899, banker Eugène Thomas had Château Amicitia built in Villefranche-sur-Mer. Designed in the purest neo-classical style, the property faces the sea, protected by a hectare of lush vegetation, just above Villefranche harbor.

Classic Château Amicitia? With its four-meter high ceilings, imposing marble columns, moldings and gilding, this property is one of the French Riviera’s most incredible showcases of the Belle Époque. And as if to further cement its legend, it was one of the Titanic’s survivors, Samuel Goldenberg, who renamed it Nellcote in homage to his wife Nella.

An exceptional location, a property with a sumptuous interior and a park bursting with Mediterranean essences. The guitarist of the world’s biggest rock band was looking for a place to live on the Côte d’Azur. In his autobiography Life, published in 2010, Keith Richards declared that it was impossible to remain insensible to the aura of this residence: “If you woke up smashed in the morning, a tour of this sparkling château was enough to put you back on your feet”. However, it was something quite different that convinced Mick Jagger’s sidekick to move into Villa Nellcote. The property boasted an unusual feature that had already seduced the Gestapo during the Occupation: an incredible, never-ending underground network of cellars and tunnels. The guitarist immediately saw infinite instrumental possibilities for recording a successor to the already cult Sticky Fingers.

Keith Richards: a season in Villefranche-sur-Mer

It was in the underground of one of the most luxurious and legendary properties on the Côte d’Azur that the Stones installed all their studio equipment from spring 1971 until summer 1972. For more than a year, Villa Nellcote would live to the rock’n’roll rhythm of its illustrious occupants, between dantesque parties full of all sorts of excesses attended by the cream of the world’s star system, and composition and recording sessions. The result was the band’s only ever double studio album, the brilliant Exile On Main Street. A quirky, hybrid, catch-all record, but so raw. And it perfectly defines the Stones’ rock, soul and bluesy sound and spirit of the time. A must-have.

Today, Villa Nellcote holds its place among the ranks of the most beautiful villas that have made the history of the Côte d’Azur. But more than others, its name also shines in the firmament of the galaxy of great places that have helped write rock history. A light shaped by the Mediterranean sun.

Shine a light, they said.

Photo credit: Dominique Tarlé

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