For most people on vacation, the traditional tourist attractions such as museums and amusement parks are generally on the agenda. For me, however, these vacations are usually pilgrimages to various historical rock n’ roll venues, studios or legendary concert sites. When the South of France was planned for the summer (2017) the first thing that crossed my mind was visiting Nellcôte.
For those who don’t know me, I am a huge Stones fan and one of my all time favorite albums is Exile on Main St. After the Stones were exiled from the U.K. due to extreme tax laws, the band fled to Villefranche-sur-Mer in the South of France to embark on writing and recording their masterpiece.
The sixteen-room mansion named Nellcôte, or sometimes Villa Nellcôte, was rented by Keith Richards and much of the recording of Exile was done in the basement. The stories of opulence, decadence and excess are legendary, but one anecdote pretty much sums up the six-month long house party of sex, drugs and certainly rock n’ roll; Dominque Tarlé was tasked with photographing the Stones at Nellcôte for an afternoon. With his duties complete, as he was being escorted to the door by Keith, Keith mentioned that he was welcome to stay if he wished. So he did…for six months.
