During her passionate but ill-fated love affair with the Duke of Westminster, the French fashion icon Coco Chanel was given a parcel of land near Monte Carlo by the Duke for the purposes of constructing this elaborate summer villa, dubbed La Pausa. The eccentric and extravagant Duke was famous for his over-the-top gifts, and once reportedly hid a huge uncut emerald at the bottom of a crate of vegetables, so this generosity was nothing new, but the seven-bedroom villa Chanel built would soon become even more legendary, welcoming the likes of Igor Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, and … [Read more...]