Tucked into the Cliffs of the French Riviera, This Summer Home Is the Ultimate Celebration of Natural Materials
Designer Félix Millory conjures a breathtaking retreat defined by Mediterranean views and a global array of art and antiquities
On Paris-based architect and designer Félix Millory’s phone there are literally hundreds of photos of the same French Riviera vista. A panorama overlooking rocky cliffs and lush, steeply pitched slopes that tumble down to sandy beaches lining the azure Mediterranean, it’s the view that greets him each time he visits a villa he renovated for clients near Beaulieu-sur-Mer. “From the road, you have no inkling of what awaits,” he says. “It’s only once you take a couple of steps inside the property that the sea suddenly appears. The effect is quite intoxicating.”
The four-bedroom villa, originally built in the 1950s, serves as a vacation home for a couple, Dutch real estate brokers and art collectors, whose Paris pied-à-terre Millory had previously designed. They initially brought him to Beaulieu-sur-Mer to repair the villa’s leaky roof, which had deteriorated so badly that ceilings had started to collapse. “Once when I was there, a big lump of plaster fell onto one of the beds,” recalls the designer. Not long after he got to work, the decision was made to launch a complete renovation.
Stretching down the mountain three levels, the residence fits snugly against the rock face, which is exposed on the lowest floor, giving it a cave-like feel. Millory’s clients had bought the place ten years prior and decorated it themselves in a simple, laid-back fashion. He recalls “big wooden cabinets filled with 40 pairs of flip-flops, tons of towels, and swimsuits.” The roof terrace was barely used, and the internal layout was far from ideal, with one of the bedrooms accessible only by passing through another.
The renovations presented technical challenges. To install a new staircase, Millory had to dynamite out some of the mountainside. He also discovered that walls he believed were made from stone were actually 27-inch-thick solid concrete. Mechanical saws measuring five feet in length were used to cut through it. “I didn’t know such machines even existed,” he admits.
Millory trained as an architect before founding his design firm in 2012. Among his first commissions was the Paris apartment of French actress and singer Vanessa Paradis. (He got the job, coincidentally, after renovating her sister’s flat following a water leak.) Since then, he has developed a style notable for its restraint, subtle color palette, and sophisticated mix of materials.
At Beaulieu-sur-Mer, Millory used an abundance of natural surfaces throughout, including smoked-oak cabinetry and floors. Cappuccino marble, which he describes as having “the texture of elephant’s skin,” turns up in the kitchen and in the primary bath, where he combined it with another stone called Silk Georgette. “It has a similar vein to travertine,” he says of the latter, “but it’s even finer, straighter, and more perfect.”
Straight lines are a rarity elsewhere. Instead, Millory took a cue from the existing arched doorways and played with rounded forms. “I wanted to bring a lot of softness to the interior, to create a cocoon-like effect,” he says. Perhaps his most spectacular architectural gesture is the new plaster staircase, which spirals from the top of the house to the bottom and took three craftsmen two months to build.
Those organic contours find an echo in the furniture in the living room, most notably in the custom stained-oak cocktail table by Arnold de Vinck, with its puddle-shaped top, and the sheepskin-upholstered Little Petra armchair, a low wingback design by Viggo Boesen. The palette here and throughout is largely creamy whites contrasted with dark browns and charcoals, with a few colorful accent pillows and contemporary artwork by the likes of Arty Grimm and Harmen van der Tuin. The kitchen displays a porcelain wall sculpture by Jeanne Opgenhaffen, a particular favorite of Millory’s. “I just love how delicate it is,” he says.
Much of the art in the villa is antique Asian works and Indigenous sculptures from Africa. In an alcove off of the living room, a collection of 12th-century Cambodian bells is displayed in a pair of niches, with a Bura funeral urn from Niger in striking red terra-cotta poised between them. A 17th-century Chinese Foo dog placidly stands guard on a plinth at the bottom of the stairs, while a Bamoun mask from Cameroon perches next to the fireplace. “I find traditional African sculpture functions well in my rather minimal interiors,” notes Millory. “It adds a lot of texture.”
The most important element of all is the spectacular views, which are a focal point inside and out on the multiple terraces as well as in the gardens, where sculptural busts punctuate the plantings of rosemary bushes, crane flowers, umbrella pines, and cypress trees. “Almost wherever you are, you have the presence of the sea,” he says. “It’s as if the house’s sole purpose were to behold it.
Tucked into the Cliffs of the French Riviera, This Summer Home Is the Ultimate Celebration of Natural Materials
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Summer Issue under the headline “Where the Sea Meets the Sky.” Subscribe to the magazine.