Forget Versailles, I'll take the Rothschild version

Several weeks ago I reported the most traumatic tourism experience I'd had in years, fighting crowds in the badly managed and less-impressive-than-expected palace of Versailles. I'm delighted to say that less than a month later my desire for magnificent 17th century furniture, dancing fountains and generally excessive surroundings was fully sated by a Rothschild house and gardens on the French Coast.

Within an hour of entry, the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild had become my favourite attraction amongst all the sightseeing I've tacked on to my years of business travel down to Cannes. Built in the early 20th century, the villa demonstrates what's possible when you combine an enormous amount of money and a strong personality with eclectic good taste. In fact, the builder Baroness Beatrice has jumped onto my fantasy dinner party guest list.

Born into the French Rothschilds, she was a well-educated, adventurous world traveler (her cases and pith helmet are on display here) who then married into a Russian banking family with additional resources. After her husband died she spent a long widowhood continuing her travels, leading society and building her villa. She'd been captivated by the long, narrow Cap Ferrat penninsula and its stunning views along the coast in both directions. Naturally, she bought 40 acres along the spine of the peninsula and set about building a home there, even though she already had a place in neighbouring Monte Carlo. Always fond of traveling, even when at home, she had her gardens designed in the shape of a cruise ship's deck. With the surrounding views of water she could feel that every day was steaming off to a new and exotic destination.

The exotic travel feel continues throughout the gardens, which we toured before going in the villa itself. There's a Spanish garden, modeled on the Alhambra, filled with the sounds of water. A Tuscan garden moves the villa to Italy, while the stone garden might be an overgrown English gothic ruin. The Japanese garden has raked gravel, a koi pond and the requisite tea house, while an exotic garden brims with oddly-shaped cacti and a rose garden evokes classic tradition. From every garden there are magnificent views to the bays on either side of the peninsula, each studded with smaller, but equally lovely, villas. Eventually, winding garden paths bring you to the high point of the garden, where a circular "temple of love" houses a statue of Aphrodite. From here, a fountain cascades down a stone stair into the formal pool of the French garden. Every twenty minutes the water here erupts into a dazzling display of arcs, spurts and spins, coordinated to orchestral favourites.

From the formal gardens you finally enter the house, through what's actually the back door. Look up as you approach to check out a sumptuous loggia on the floor above; I can imagine the baroness giving the perfect dinner party here, inviting guests to retreat into the cool shade on a sweltering summer's evening to nibble gourmet titbits and watch the fountains dance. Once inside, such imaginings multiply, as this is clearly a house built for entertaining on a grand scale.

It's constructed around a large internal courtyard which is pure Tuscany. The entry porch (a room the size of a large drawing room on its own) has a wooden ceiling painted with the kind of renaissance portraits you still see on pottery all over that city. That leads onto a square cloister-style walk which surrounds a generous courtyard floored with delicate mosaic. Though roofed, the ceiling is painted to resemble the sky and it's easy to imagine yourself outside at dusk. The courtyard is surrounded by colonnades of Romanesque arches, broad on the ground floor, narrower and interspersed with intricate stone tracery between the columns above. Beneath the ground floor arcades you'll find an impressive collection of renaissance art, much of it religious, and furniture. To one side, songbirds in a large cage add a sophisticated soundtrack. The name you're thinking here isn't Rothschild, it's Medici.

But just when you have this place figured out, it changes gears. Walk into the main reception room, and you're at Versailles. Marquetry floors, panelled walls, gods ascending to heaven in painted ceilings, gobelin tapestries, Louis XIV furniture. In fact, the rug here is from the great palace's chapel, and Marie Antoinette's games table takes pride of place amongst the furniture.

The remaining rooms on the ground floor stay in the grand French theme. There's a jaw dropping porcelain collection, a tented dressing room the Empress Josephine would have recognised from the craze for exotic looks after her husband's Egyptian campaign, and a completely over-the-top bedroom for the baroness that looks constructed from icing piped out of a pastry bag. My favourite feature here: Louis XIV style dog beds for her spaniels. And from every window, views of stunning gardens with spectacular sea views and dramatic coastline beyond.

I like to think that were I ever to win a really enormous lottery, this is the mix of good taste, high culture and whimsical fun I'd put together. (Though, admittedly, I'd probably go a bit heavier on English Georgian than French royal.) As I am not likely to have such a motherlode at my fingertips any time soon, I'm glad that places like the Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild exist. Thanks to Baroness Beatrice for sharing.