WHAT I LIKE ABOUT DOING REAL ESTATE IN CANNES

I saw an ad in the newspaper for an apartment in a "prestigious Napoleon III mansion". Upon inquiry, it turned out to be a residence that I have seldom visited and never had an apartment for sale in. I went there once to see an architect who lives there who has done an inventory of all the remarkable buildings in Cannes.

I was very pleased to finally have something for sale there and upon arriving at the apartment, my expectations were pleasantly rewarded; both the apartment and the owner were quite interesting. I was immediately struck by the art deco furniture, paintings and other objects that were present. The owner told me that she had taken most everything out to be sold at auction in Paris and that she had only kept a sparse amount of things so that the apartment would not be completely empty for the visits.

The owner was a beautiful French lady, whose age I would not guess at. As with many mature French women, she was in great shape and not a kilo, not even 500 grams, overweight. She was casually dressed in brown pants, turtleneck sweater and a gold tweed sports jacket. She had a fair complexion and two long, golden braids that dangled from a round nit cap on her head framed her face. She had big green eyes that were circled in blue mascara and they looked directly and rather defiantly at me as if to say that she was comfortable with strangers and probably unimpressed by even the most sophisticated company. There was no smile, but she was certainly accessible and ready to talk openly. However, I understood that she was just putting up with this inconvenience in order to sell her apartment.

I was immediately interested to know how she had spent her life. I imagined her as a beautiful, young woman being courted by the rich and powerful and finally marrying a wealthy businessman or two who gave her the time and means to become an expert investor in art deco antiques. She told me she had a law degree, which sounded preposterously boring to me and I was sure that if she did have, she had never practiced. Her appearance was anything but rigorously studious and I saw her more as a slightly eccentric artist type who was probably quite sensuous, maybe even flirtatious, in her youth although keeping a very good idea in mind of where she wanted to go in life. I could imagine her more easily catering to countless guests in exclusive cocktail parties than preparing a dissertation or defending a client.

The apartment was vast, containing about 180 square meters of living space on the top floor with a panoramic view of Cannes and the sea with the
Lerins islands to the left and the Esterel Mountains to the right. There was a triple living room that was even too big. It almost looked like a dancehall, probably because it lacked furniture, but there was obviously a
wall at one time that had separated it from a bedroom at the end, but had been taken out. The dining room was separated, at the other end, by a dry wall and fireplace. The bedrooms were all quite large. There is no need to describe the whole apartment. I'll let the photos do that. The asking price is 1,330,000 Euro.