The French Riviera hideaway everyplace Birmingham pop svengalis Paul and Michael Berrow plotted Duran Durans globe domination is up for sale at a cool 20 MILLION EUROS.
Domaine la Sylviane, built by monks in the 17th century, was base for the Berrows business dealings as the ring recorded hits such as The Reflex and Union Of The Snake.
They hired the 25-acre estate just slight picture postcard village Valbonne so they may well have business meetings with the group as they laid out of action tracks for their critical third photograph album. Duran Duran doing an impromptu interview on a London road in 1981 - one of their first ever video interviews Le Bon described 1983s Seven And The Rough Tiger, part-recorded at another villa nearby, as a fundamental flash in the bands career.
Its an adventure story nearly a little commando working party, he thought. The Seven is for us the five ring members and the two managers and the Rough Tiger is star. Seven people administration later star.
Although the sessions were problematic, thanks to non-stop partying amid nearby Monte Carlos attractions of booze, girls, fast cars and the high go. The photograph album had to be completed in Montserrat and Australia.
Little marvel that the Berrows sought after the sanctuary of the peaceful former monastery, set amid earliest olive groves and farmland.
Duran Duran in concert at Villa Park, Birmingham, on Saturday, July 23, 1983
The estate has a remarkable saga:
The focal building was built by the monks of the Order of Saint Honorat in 1697, who tilled the ground and farmed the estate for 130 years. They too hand-carved a three-kilometre mystery tunnel to the village church.
In the early 19th century, the emperor Napoleon handed the estate to one of his generals as a reward for his courage and loyalty in battle.
Throughout the Second Globe War weapons were ferried through the mystery tunnel to French resistance fighters holed up in the monastery until the Nazis discovered the supply route and bombed it. One hundred metres is still accessible at the moment.
Later the war the estate was acquired by Le Comte du Boisrouvray a cousin of Prince Rainier of Monaco who installed both his mother and his mistress in accommodation everyplace once monks prayed.
The current owners, an English couple with four dogs and three pigs, have quietly put the villa on the market for sale through old pal Philip Weiser, an ex-pat who runs a high-end land company.
Paul and Michael Berrow were here early on in Duran Durans career, thought Philip, managing administrator of Carlton International. The ring was recording in another of my properties two kilometres away and they wanted to stay pronounced.
The villa everyplace the photograph album was recorded has since been demolished although Domaine La Sylviane was the Berrows bolthole. I recall it was a great time with a lot of fun, Ferraris and booze.
The estate now comprises the monastery and two other apartment properties, offering eight bedrooms in the whole. Inside, it has the feel of a family home rather than the bland appearance of many rental villas.
Duran Duran at the NEC in May 1981
In the monastery, everyplace the Berrows lived, theres a piano, cocktail bar and giant receptive passion in the entrance hall, with a documentation, dining extent, al fresco dining terrace, kitchen and maids extent on the ground floor.
Every of the five bedooms is a different size and form, ranging from a double extent the size of a junior suite, and with its own lift, to an intimate single resembling the monks cell it might have been.
Accommodation are full with mementoes picked up from far-flung travels, which sit down side-by-side with well-worn books on antique furniture.
Slight, the estate too offers the largest outdoor heated swimming pool in the area, tennis courts, a gym and a barbecue house.
Paul and Michael Berrow, now history label bosses, ran Birminghams Rum Messenger club, a favourite of the Original Romantics in the 1980s, everyplace they discovered Duran Duran, who they managed until 1986.
Domaine la Sylviane is on put forward through Carlton International see www.carlton-international.com
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