Château de la Chèvre d'Or

The village of Èze sits on a rock 400 metres above the Mediterranean, between Nice and Monaco, and its lanes are too narrow for a car. The Château de la Chèvre d'Or occupies a good part of them: medieval houses bought and joined over seventy years, terraces cut into the cliff, and a restaurant whose dining room ends in a window that seems to hang over Cap Ferrat. Guests arrive on foot, their luggage carried up the lane from the gate.

History

The hotel's own account starts in 1953, when Robert Wolf, an Alsatian who had bought a house in the village, opened it as a small inn with a restaurant. Walt Disney, who had stayed in Èze in the early 1950s, is said to have encouraged him; the name, the Golden Goat, recalls a legend of the Èze rock. Over the following decades the owners acquired neighbouring houses as they came up for sale, so that the hotel now spreads through the upper village with its rooms, gardens and pools scattered between them. It has been a member of Relais & Châteaux for decades and holds the Palace distinction.

The restaurant has held two Michelin stars for most of this century. Arnaud Faye, who arrived in 2016 from the Auberge du Jeu de Paume at Chantilly, kept them and was named Meilleur Ouvrier de France while there.

Architecture and design

Nothing was built for the hotel; everything was adapted. The houses date mainly from the medieval and early modern centuries, with thick stone walls, vaulted rooms and small windows that frame the sea. Terraced gardens step down the cliff with cypresses, statuary and fountains, and several of the sea-facing terraces are no wider than a table. The result is a hotel without a lobby in the usual sense: reception is in one house, the bar in another, and the way between them is a village lane.

Rooms and suites

There are around 40 rooms and suites spread through the various houses, each one different in shape. The best have terraces over the sea, and a few have private pools or jacuzzis cut into the rock. Interiors are Provençal in material, with terracotta, stone and painted wood, and have been refreshed room by room in recent years. Guests should expect stairs; the site allows few lifts.

Dining

La Chèvre d'Or, the gastronomic restaurant, has two Michelin stars and a dining room whose glass wall faces the sea, with a terrace outside for summer. Les Remparts, on a terrace built into the old walls, serves a simpler Mediterranean menu through the day and is the place for lunch with the view. Le Café du Jardin serves breakfast and lighter dishes in the garden, and the bar occupies a vaulted room with a terrace.

Wellness

There is no spa of any size; the site does not allow it. Several pools are set into the terraces, including a main pool facing the sea, and treatments can be arranged in-room.

Weddings and events

The Chèvre d'Or hosts weddings and private dinners, with the terraces and gardens as the setting and the restaurants privatised for the meal. The absence of car access and of any large room limits the scale: this is a house for a wedding of a few dozen guests, or for a company taking the whole hotel, not for a reception of hundreds. Small meetings are held in the salons.

Location

Èze is on the Moyenne Corniche, about twenty minutes by car from Nice and fifteen from Monaco. The hotel's gate is in the upper village; the car park and the road are below. Èze-sur-Mer station on the coast is reached by the Nietzsche path, a steep hour's walk, or by taxi. Nice Côte d'Azur airport is about 30 minutes. The Jardin Exotique, planted on the ruins of the castle at the summit, is above the hotel. On the Riviera, this is the resort hotel on the coast with the highest view, and the only one inside a medieval village.