The famed interior designer François Catroux has designed yacht interiors for Barry Diller, castles for the Rothschilds, an apartment for David Geffen, and homes for himself that are identical to or even surpass his well-known customers’ houses. One such challenge—a 10-acre compound in Provence—has been his spouse Betty’s excursion home since the early Nineteen Nineties. “I don’t realize how long it took [to renovate], but François did everything—I didn’t do a thing. It was half a damage,” Betty Catroux says.
After a few reflections, Catroux, a version and muse for the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, settled on a construction timeline of “about years.” It genuinely, she provides, “took pretty some time to furnish. The house, the grounds, and the whole inner lot are on sale for $11—five million, listed with Alexander Kraft of Sotheby’s International Realty France.
Now François wants to visit the sea,” says Catroux.
He sold something after Nice, so we’re going. The property includes a 16th-century stone house divided between fundamental quarters and a separate guest phase. Overall, it measures approximately five three hundred rectangular toes. (There’s a further 750-square-foot caretaker’s cottage nearby.) All instructed the assets have nine bedrooms.
A House Made for Hosting
François likes to entertain,” Catroux says. “Me? I like having nobody in my residence, so it became as much as him. He had some buddies come and entertained comme il faut. However, I was like a guest, I’m telling you.
Going a step similarly, Catroux then calls herself “a terrible host.
When everyone is going to the pool, I go to my room to keep away from my guests,” she says. “But of the route, everyone is overjoyed because no one wants to see the host anyway.” And who were these presumably famous guests? “It’s not very elegant to cite names; those who know us recognize anyway. Nevertheless, the residence is designed with entertaining thoughts. There’s a huge residence with a vaulted ceiling and cement ground embedded with river stones.
Catroux characterizes the ornament as a mixture of issues. “It’s very sober, now not a show-off at all. You can look at the images and decide for yourself,” she says. “I recognize while things are lovely, and the whole lot François did is perfection. I got to look around. I was delighted and very fortunate.
The Property
Among their many improvements to the buildings, they added a big door terrace, -automobile storage, and a pool house. Perhaps most impressively, the property is protected in landscaped gardens with boxwood, lavender, and vegetation. Allées of cypress bushes, a tennis courtroom, and ample doors lounge regions.
Once again, Catroux deflects any credit score for the manicured grounds. “It turned into all François’ concept,” she says. “He wanted all of it to be inexperienced, and we have the maximum superb gardener working for us, and for years, he’s kept it flawlessly.” (The gardener can stay with the belongings, must the subsequent purchaser choose.)
The property is placed in a rural setting. However, it’s distinctly close to various towns and cultural services. It’s a 10-minute walk from the city of Lourmarin, which Catroux notes turned into the birthplace of the author Albert Camus. Once a summer season, we supply a large dinner; however, otherwise, we had buddies come for drinks,” Catroux says. “That’s how people live inside the country; human beings come merely with the aid of a glass.
No Regrets Of her favored associates—Pierre Bergé and Anne Cox Chambers—best Chambers, a media multi-millionaire, remains alive. “She used to make the New York City Ballet come to bop in her lawn,” recollects Catroux. “Plus, she liquids lots, and so do I, and I love her for that, too. The fashion clothier Saint Laurent, Catroux says, visited the residence best once while her daughter got married.
Saiaurent is someone who by no means left his residence,” she explains. “He would never go to stay at someone’s house, and we were very fortunate because we all had our houses, and we all just desired to visit at home. Despite calling the home “a chunk of heaven, Catroux has no regrets about selling the property—and the whole lot in it. Listen, I have no attachment to fabric matters, she says. “So it doesn’t pass anything in me to sell, and I love the idea of beginning new and leaving the relaxation behind. That’s the way I feature.
