Musée Ile-de-France (aka Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild)

Description:

• Built by Baronne Ephrussi de Rothschild, this is one of the Côte d'Azur's legendary villas. Born a Rothschild, the baronne married a Hungarian banker and friend of her father, about whom even the museum's curator knows little. She died in 1934, leaving the Italianate building and its gardens to the Institut de France on behalf of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. The museum preserves the wealth of her collection: 18th-century furniture; Tiepolo ceilings; Savonnerie carpets; screens and panels from the Far East; tapestries from Gobelin, Aubusson, and Beauvais; Fragonard drawings; Boucher canvases; Sèvres porcelain; and more. The gardens contain fragments of statuary from churches, monasteries, and palaces. An entire section is planted with cacti.

• © Frommer's 2012

Awards:

Frommer's

•  Highly Recommended 2010