A Singular
Belle Époque Estate

A House Built for
the Light

Maison Velour was commissioned in 1887 by the Marquis Édouard de Velour — a Parisian industrialist of singular taste who chose the limestone bluffs above Villefranche-sur-Mer not for their proximity to the fashionable promenades of Nice, but for something far rarer: solitude, and the quality of the light. The original estate, designed by the Monégasque architect Henri Soleil, took four years to complete. Every room was furnished from the workshops of Paris, Lyon, and Genoa, each element chosen by the Marquis and his wife Isabelle with an insistence on permanence over fashion.

The house passed through three generations of the de Velour family, host to artists, statesmen, and the quietly celebrated. It was in this spirit of private grandeur — never exhibition, always intimacy — that the estate was meiculously restored in 2008. The restoration returned the house to its original architectural expression while welcoming sixteen private suites, each with unobstructed views of the Mediterranean. The principle remained unchanged: fewer guests, absolute attention.

Today Maison Velour receives no more than thirty-two guests at a time. This deliberate intimacy defines everything the estate stands for — not as a constraint, but as the founding conviction of what luxury truly means.