The Imported Paradise — Villa La Treille Muscate

A United Nations of Botany

When you sit in the garden of Villa La Treille Muscate, listening to the birds in the shade of the trees, you are actually sitting in a grand, centuries-old botanical experiment.

The great irony of the Côte d'Azur is that almost none of the flora that people consider "iconic" to the region is actually native to it. The entire coastline was terraformed by successive waves of empires, aristocrats, and botanists.

The true magic of our hillside in Villefranche-sur-Mer isn't just its native rocky soil—it's how this unique Mediterranean microclimate welcomed the most beautiful plants from across the world and made them feel entirely at home.

The Grounds

The Whole Plot

A rendering of the property from above — the house, the terrace and its olive grove on one side, and the lawned garden stretching out beyond, sheltered by hedges and mature trees on every edge.

Rendered site plan of Villa La Treille Muscate, showing the house, terrace, driveway and garden — Site plan of the property, drawn to scale

When people picture the French Riviera, they immediately envision the majestic, flat-topped silhouette of the Umbrella Pine framing a view of the azure sea. Just think what St Tropez would look like without them! Yet, their heavy concentration along our coast is largely man-made.

They were propagated thousands of years ago by the Romans, who planted them extensively across their empire to harvest pine nuts for food, and to provide shade for their marching legions along the great coastal roads—like the ancient Via Julia Augusta that passes right above Villefranche.

During the Victorian era, wealthy landowners planted them by the thousands to create the romantic, highly structured landscapes that came to define the Riviera aesthetic.

If there is one flower that defines winter on the Riviera, it's the bright, violently yellow Mimosa. But this plant has no historic business being in Europe. How dare it! It is an acacia native to southeastern Australia, with seeds originally brought back from Captain James Cook's expeditions.

In the mid-19th century, British and Russian aristocrats who spent their winters on the Côte d'Azur wanted vibrant flowers that bloomed in January and February to brighten their vast estates. They imported Mimosa, and the microclimate of the Riviera proved so perfectly suited to it that it spread like wildfire across the coastal hills.

mimosa being handed out to patients on international cancer day Here, we're handing out mimosa with my friends Francoise and Ernesto on international cancer day (early february 2026).

The spectacular, electric-pink and magenta vines spilling over the old stone walls of Villefranche are entirely South American. Discovered in Brazil in 1768 by the botanist Philibert Commerçon, it was named after his friend, the French admiral and explorer Louis Antoine de Bougainville.

Introduced to Mediterranean gardens much later, it found a second home here. It thrives in the hot, dry summers and poor, rocky soil of the Côte d'Azur, providing explosive color against the pale stucco and limestone of the local architecture.

Bougainvillea at the apartment Before we bought the house, I got a little apartment right by the sea in Eze. The bougainvillae planted by my late neighbour Vincent kept trying to conquer the terrace.

The garden at Villa La Treille Muscate is sheltered by a dozen very mature, gnarled olive trees. While they feel like the most historically grounded and permanent residents of the region, they too are ancient immigrants.

It was the Greeks and the Phoenicians who first brought olive cultivation westward to the Ligurian and French coasts. Long before the Riviera became a playground for the wealthy, these tough, resilient trees were the agricultural lifeblood of the local people, providing oil, food, and wood that built the foundations of our coastal towns.

The Imported
Paradise

The Whole Plot

The Stone Pine

Silver Wattle (Mimosa)

Bougainvillea

The Olive Tree