House Portraits Dossier:

Villa Cigalette, Nice

[2 drawings]

The drama of this house is in its surprise as you come to the top of the stairwell leading from the street.  

All of a sudden you are in the garden, under the twisty-trunked parasol of an old mimosa tree and with battlements (as I call them) overlooking the entirety of Nice, east to the hills over Monte Carlo beyond what was Elton John's villa on Mont Boron, north to the arrière-pays with the town of Peille twinkling at night, and south to the port and the sea.  And the house is a classic maison niçoise, a cube with a squat lid of tiles & eaves, set in a space riddled with fruit trees and climbing roses.  Nooks & crannies abound.  A moggy patrols.

The ink view gives the aspect from the additional, higher dining-terrace at the north end of the garden (after yet more curly steps!), looking out to sea, and the charcoal sketch is from the other corner, the pastis-terrace, looking back to the house, in anticipation....

encre de chine  

charcoal

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