Living abroad: the Côte d’Azur
When Copenhagen-based businessman Christian Nielsen bought an auberge on the Côte d’Azur, he lavished time and money on creating his ideal hotel. Now that it’s up and running, with a manager on site, the Dane has found he’s left his heart in the hilltown of Tourrettes sur Loup
words by Camilla H Tjellesen
“Buying a small hotel in France was always a dream of mine, as it is for many people,” says Danish businessman Christian Nielsen. “But what you have to remember is that there’s a reality after fulfilling the dream. You have to look into the future and decide whether or not it’s something you want to do, because you’ll spend a lot of your time on it.”
He certainly knows what he’s talking about. Nielsen made a lifelong wish come true when he bought a traditional French inn – an auberge – in the small town Tourrettes sur Loup, about 20 minutes’ drive into the hills above Nice. He’s quick to admit, however, that the project has also been something of drain on his time and finances. “From the time we started on it until the day we opened, at least half a year went by where we were working on it all the time. Too much money has been spent on it as well – definitely more than we had thought it would cost.”
So it’s taken its toll, but giving the auberge a new lease of life has also been an experience and an achievement he wouldn’t swap for the world: “I don’t know anywhere in France that’s as beautiful as Tourrettes Sur Loup, and I’m still very happy to have made that decision,” he says.
It all started in 1988 when Nielsen, a headhunter at GlobeSearch in Copenhagen, decided that he’d like to invest in a house in the South of France. After a long romance with the country it was time to make a serious commitment. So off the Dane went, in search of the perfect place.
that it would be easy to get to when flying in from Denmark. I made a lot of research trips and finally I fell head over heels for Tourrettes sur Loup. It just had everything that I had ever hoped for. It’s an authentic medieval town with the old walls, streets lined with plane trees, small cosy cafés, boules lanes and a charming town square in the middle of it. It was just perfect, and exactly what I’d been looking for.” Nielsen quickly bought a house there, which he sold on a few years later. While owning his first place in Tourrettes, the auberge just near the main square caught his eye.
“I’d been looking at the auberge for a long time and just loved it. It had the perfect location with the most amazing views out over both the sea and the valley, and I had often been in there to have a look around. It was very boring-looking on the inside back then, very badly decorated.”
Then, one day in 1999, when he was in town, something made him go in and have another look.
“It was like something was just pulling me in there. I had to go in and look at it again. When I came in, the owner thought I knew that it was for sale and that I was a potential buyer, but I didn’t – it was a complete coincidence,” Nielsen recalls. “So when I heard that it was for sale, I got all excited because I’d been dying to own my own hotel down here in the South of France.”
Despite going over his estimated budget and timescale, Nielsen is pleased with the final outcome. What was once a dowdy hotel – admittedly with knock-out views – is now an elegant yet simple hideaway with excellent modern Provençal food, an open kitchen and a beautiful terrace for guests to soak up the views of the Med and lush valley below. The old auberge had 14 rooms but none of them had bathrooms, so the refurbishment saw him changing those into 10 beautiful, individually decorated bedrooms with luxury bathrooms. He recently added on two large suites as well. Decorating the place in the perfect style became a hobby for Nielsen and his partner – they wanted the auberge to reflect their lifestyle and getting the look right was very important.
“We’ve aimed for the light and airy Provence style that includes lots of terracotta, tiles and linen.” What he’s ended up with is the brightness of Provence without the flowers-and-olives folksiness; a clean Scandinavian sensibility is in evidence. “I believe we’ve succeeded in getting that balance between cosy and modern.”
Nielsen warns that buying in France is a very different experience to buying in Denmark.
“I spoke French relatively well, but there are so many technical terms and different laws that you have to get used to. When I looked through the deeds, for example, there were many peculiarities from previous owners about what we could or couldn’t do with the auberge. I couldn’t have gone through with the purchase without good advisers and a good lawyer. I’d say to anyone who wanted to buy abroad – always get some good advisers, because you can’t do it yourself.”
Although Nielsen is clearly deeply attached to Tourrettes sur Loup, there is the small matter of his job and family – both still in Copenhagen. So he’s based in the Danish captial and flies to the South of France at least once a month to check up on everything with the daily manager.
“I try to be as involved as possible, but I’d like to be there more, and to be a bigger part of the daily running of the hotel. But it’s just not possible with my job right now.”
A few years ago, he did try to settle in Tourrettes sur Loup with his family, commuting back and forth between Nice and Copenhagen a few times a week.
“It was great to live there, but it was very hard to do that commute. Because of that, and because of the children and their schools, we decided to move back to Denmark in 2005.
Perhaps when the kids have flown the nest? “It’s difficult to have a foot in each place,“ he admits. “It’s like living two different lives. If we can make it work, I’d certainly love to move to Tourrettes permanently one day
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