La Pausa
The former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill spent roughly a third of each year at La Pausa from 1956 to 1958 with Reves and his wife, Wendy, and wrote and edited part of his History of the English Speaking Peoples there.
The plot had formerly been part of the hunting grounds of the ruling family of Monaco, the Grimaldis, and contained wild olive and orange groves.
[4] Chanel bought more than 20,000 curved tiles from surrounding homes for the roof, and furnished the house sparsely in shades of white and beige.
[6] Guests of Chanel's at La Pausa included Igor Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Luchino Visconti.
[4] La Pausa was profiled by American Vogue magazine in 1938, with the garden described as containing "groves of orange trees, great slopes of lavender, masses of purple iris, and huge clusters of climbing roses.
[8] The designer Roderick Cameron said that at La Pausa, Chanel was the first to cultivate lavender and other flora previously regarded as "poor plants".
[9] The architect of La Pausa, Robert Streitz, was a member of the French Resistance during the German occupation of France in the Second World War.
[4][12] Reves bought La Pausa from the proceeds of the foreign-language rights to the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill's book on the Second World War.
[15] Other notable high society guests hosted by the Reves at La Pausa included Prince Rainier and Princess Grace of Monaco, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, and the actors Greta Garbo, Errol Flynn and Clark Gable.
In addition to paintings their collection at La Pausa included 300 pieces of Chinese export porcelain, more than 150 silver objects, Medieval ironwork and Arabic and Spanish carpets.
[17] In exchange for the 1985 donation Reves insisted that the museum recreate six of the principal rooms at La Pausa, and display the collection there as she had arranged it.
[4] She bequeathed the Reves Foundation including the villa and its contents to the Dallas Museum of Art (which received the largest part), as well as to several charities, and the College of Williams and Mary.
La Pausa was closed up after her death;[4] in 2013 the house was described as requiring modernisation, needing new heating, electrical, and plumbing systems, as well as renovations to the kitchen and bathrooms.
[4] In 2013 the French ambassador to Monaco, Hugues Moret, said of the sale that La Pausa was "part of France's heritage," adding that "We have to find a way to keep it in the family.
