A vacation residence once belonging to Belgium’s King Leopold II is on sale in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, near Nice, waiting for a vacationer with a billion Euros in spare change.
The villa, called “Les Cèdres,” has 10 bedrooms, a 50-meter pool, extensive greenhouses with Europe’s largest collection of rare tropical plants (14,000 of them) and 35 acres of choice land with beautiful views.
At the price, it’s believed to be the highest price ever asked for a single dwelling. Leopold, who bought it in 1904, no doubt with profits from his bloody rule of the Belgian Congo. He settled his teen-aged mistress, Caroline Delacroix there. Since 1924, it’s been owned by the Marnier Lapostolle family, of Grand Marnier fame. Some of the greenhouses produce plants used in making the liqueur.
