Category Archives: Jacques Grange

Winter Gardens

L’esprit du jardin d’hiver is in the air, a quest for a life-affirming sanctuary in colder climes. Russian royalty dedicated palaces to Winter, as with the sixteen-hundred room Winter Palace of the Romanov’s in St. Petersberg. Emperor Nikolai I decreed that Russian artist Eduard Gau create watercolor renderings of the Winter Palace’s interior, the Russian Empire’s […]

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In Search of Lost Time

Yesterday I was in the mood to leave winter behind for somewhere exotic and my journey took to me to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Russian folly, a reproduction of a dacha, on the their property at Château Gabriel on the coast of Deauville in Normandy, France. (See Russian Reverie). After pouring over articles […]

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Russian Reverie

With all the news of record snowfall and plummeting temperatures across the Eastern board an exotic getaway sounds very enticing. And what could be more exotic than the late Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé’s Russian folly at Château Gabriel overlooking the coast of Deauville in France? Granted, the weather on the coast of Normandy this […]

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Classic + Modern Mix

One of my favorite approaches to decorating a room is mixing classic and modern design elements. Modern paintings, or perhaps a gleaming Claude Lalanne chair, in a predominantly traditional room adds verve and prevents the room from becoming staid. Conversely, a predominantly contemporary, or even modern, space is heightened by an occasional classic flourish – […]

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Deck the Halls

  With Christmas fast approaching and temps plunging, for at least some, the warmth and magic of the holiday season is finding its way into our hearts and homes. From elegant penthouses with commanding views to humble cottages and barns in pastoral settings, it’s that time of year once again to extend good cheer and […]

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Haut Provençal

Posted July 16, 2013. Filed in Jacques Grange, Provence, Understated Luxury

  Our tour of Provençal homes continues with the farmhouse of Terry and Jean de Gunzburg, longtime clients and friends of celebrated French interior designer Jacques Grange. What is particularly unique to this Provencal mas is the balance Grange achieved from bringing together local rustic color and materials with sophisticated art and decor. Grange retained the […]

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Home on the Grange

Posted July 10, 2013. Filed in Jacques Grange, Provence, Understated Luxury

Our tour of some of my favorite homes in Provence continues, following my posts Tourjour Provence, Truex Provence and Chez Cameron. Images of Jacques Grange’s farmhouse, Mas Mireio, have been protected in plastic sheet covers ever since I pulled them from HG magazine years ago, in the late 1980’s. His Provençal vacation home, which is reserved […]

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Toujours Provence

Summertime in Provence is a feast for the senses – fields of sleep-inducing lavender contrasting the positively sunny disposition of row upon row of sunflowers; the colorful and tempting displays of fruit, vegetables and flowers at village marchés arranged in eye-catching compositions reminiscent of a Cezanne or Van Gogh; aromatic herbs carrying their heady notes […]

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Villa Mabrouka

With a view across the Strait of Gibraltar to the coast of Spain, Villa Mabrouka, Arabic for “The House of Luck”, is a peaceful walled complex set into a lush landscape perched at cliff’s edge, a mere five minutes from the labyrinthine souk in the Medina of Tangier. Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé purchased […]

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La Zahia: Villa Oasis

The seductive allure of Marrakesh has cast its spell on many an expat over the last century. In the late 1970’s Yves Saint Laurent and his partner Pierre Bergé purchased a compound in Marrakesh centered around exotic gardens originally designed by artist Jacques Marjorelle in 1924. In his honor they named his Art Deco style villa […]

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