Villa Les Romarins, Châteauneuf-Grasse (France)

[Cathérine Bergeyck]

the holiday residence of the king and queen is Villa les romarins, in Châteauneuf-de Grasse, in the south of France.

[DKgirls]

We saw a Danish program this week, where they were looking at houses in France. The real estate developer kept on mentioning that the Royal family of Belgium had a house in the area(near Cannes)!

So we were wondering if anybody has any pictures of that?

[Duke of Lippe-Saalfeld]

We saw a Danish program this week, where they were looking at houses in France. The real estate developer kept on mentioning that the Royal family of Belgium had a house in the area(near Cannes)!

So we were wondering if anybody has any pictures of that?

I'm sorry but i could not have found any pictures of their residence in the south of France, nut they do have a villa in South-France near Chateau-du-Grasse, on a domain called Les Romarins, wich Albert and Paola go on holiday since the 60's.
In the south of Spain, in Motril, Queen Fabiola has a summer residence, called Villa Astrida. It was here were her husband King Boudewijn died at a heart attack on 31 July 1993.

[Hannelore]

No, I don't have any photos, sorry :)

For years they've been going on holiday in the south of France. Paola, being Italian, adores the climate there.

They bought some ground there (Châteauneuf-de-Grace) and had a large villa built on it, in the typical style of the Provence. It's a small village and the people living there are used to seeing them there in summer. They buy their food from local markets and farmers.

Paola also goes to the hairdresser's there (or rather - there's a girl who comes to the villa). She once said that Albert & Paola have a bit of staff there (to help out now and then, not permanent) and that Paola is constantly on the phone - even when she's doing her hair :) -

The villa is located on a large estate, where a shepard is allowed to let his sheep graze. Albert & Paola go there for the peace and quiet. When a few years ago the municipality planned to transform a neighbouring estate into a camping, Albert & Paola saw their dreams shattered, soon a hurd of tourists would be crossing their domaine, instead of a sheppard. So Albert bought the ground for the camping himself :) He made it into some sort of mini nature reserve, had new trees being planted etc.

A few years ago two more villas were built on the estate : one for the children, and one for friends.

[johann]

If isopix got it right, this is the villa of Albert and Paola in Châteauneuf-Grasse.
http://img188.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_142lo.JPG
http://img188.imagevenue.com/img.php..._122_369lo.JPG
The pictures are from 1994 and I seriously doubt it still looks this way (if it´s the villa at all). It seems Albert also bought a neighbouring house not long ago and renovation works have been done in the meantime as well (thanks to Sofia for this info). But maybe someone else has better pics.

[Marengo]

Thanks for posting those Johann. I wouldn´t be surprised if the summerhouse of ALbert and Paola was modest though. They don´t seem to enjoy lavish housing that much. They preferred to stay at Belvedere instead of moving to far more imposing Laeken for example. Likewise their Dutch collegue has an old farm as summerhouse and the Norwegian royals have some charming but small summerhouses too.