Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie’s French Chateau
It looks like Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt have decided to give birth in France this time around (the twins are due this summer). At the Cannes Film Festival, Jolie told reporters, “We are certainly thinking of France.”
According to French newspaper Nice Matin, the dynamic duo just signed a 3-year lease on a $70 million chateau on the French Riviera.
The pre-Roman estate sits on nearly 1,000 acres in the South of France and is called Chateau Miraval. Let’s just say it ain’t shabby. It has 35 bedrooms and boasts a vineyard, lake, moat, forest, and 20 fountains. There are both indoor and outdoor pools, his-and-hers gyms, and an enormous banquet hall. The driveway alone is three miles long.
You know it’s big when they need to take aerial views to show it all. Take a look!
Chateau Miraval is located in a tiny village called Brignol in the Var. A source close to the deal told Britain’s Daily Mail:
“There’s a lake and a swimming pool and fountains and fields with ponies, and it’s surrounded by a huge forest, so no one will be able to take pictures of them or the kids. They’re both thrilled, as they’ve been hunting for a place on the Riviera for over a year.
“Last year, Brad and Angelina took a helicopter along the Riviera, and they were literally landing in people’s gardens of houses that they liked and were running in to ask if their properties were for sale,” said the source. “They found this one the same way a few weeks ago.”
Some of their neighbors will include Bono, the Beckhams, and Johnny Depp. It’s good to know who you can go to if you need to borrow sugar. (If those were my neighbors, I might be running low on sugar a LOT.)
A source told E! News about the chateau:
“It’s absolutely unbelievable. Brad and Angelina are thrilled, they love the place and have already been furniture shopping to fill the place as it’s massive…The whole family can’t wait to move in.
“The house is surrounded by a forest so they’ll have total privacy, which is exactly what they’re after. No one will ever be able to get pictures of them relaxing at home, it’s just impossible.”
They are raising their children (Maddox, 6, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2) to speak French as a second language. Jolie said at Cannes, “My children are starting to speak French, so being here is very good for them and their language.”
Pitt and Jolie have been living with their kids in France since late April, bunking at Microsoft cofounder Paul Allen’s villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Jolie and Allen became friends while filming Shark Tale together in 2004.
The Daily Mail’s source said: ‘Last year Brad and Angelina took a helicopter along the Riviera and they were literally landing in people’s gardens of houses that they liked and were running in to ask if their properties were for sale. They found this one the same way a few weeks ago, and told the owner to name his price.’
The Pitt-Jolies already own multimillion-dollar homes in Cambodia, Berlin, Malibu, New Orleans (shown below), and L.A., and rent a $100,000-a-month 5-bedroom suite at the Waldorf. Some have speculated that they were the anonymous bidders behind the modernist Kaufmann House, as I reported last week (click here to read about it).
Thanks to Hooked on Houses reader Marie who asked me to write a post about this. I love when you guys give me ideas and suggestions.
Note: the reporting on this is sort of all over the place. People magazine reported that the chateau has 35 rooms, not bedrooms. Other sites reported 20 bedrooms, all depending on their sources. I’ve got calls in to both Brad and Angie and I’m sure they’ll confirm the details for us as soon as they get settled in.
These photos were found at Us Magazine, Huffington Post, and NY Post.
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If You’re Hooked on Famous Houses:
May 30th, 2008 at 6:27 am
Holy Cow. That’s all I got…………..
May 30th, 2008 at 8:36 am
I can understand their need for privacy, and at least there are a bunch of kids in this family (soon to be six!), but I’ll never, for the life of me, understand why anyone would need or want a house with 35 bedrooms! The house I spent the first six years of my life in was a two bedroom, plus converted attic that housed my parents, my grandmother and me and six siblings! A few years after we moved to a 5-bedroom house, the eighth sibling was born. I now live in a 4 bedroom house with one other person and we have LOTS of room. Sometimes, I think it would be nice to live in a mansion, but if and only if, I have my whole family AND a couple of maids to live there with me.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:08 am
Well done, Julia! That place just looks like a dream. I would have to agree with Bonnie, though - 35 bedrooms seems way too much! But when you’re that rich, I guess you can hire a maid for every room if you’d like. For that matter, you could hire friends to come and stay in those rooms. (Although I’m guessing most people would do it for free!) I would have to agree that I love the visual of Brad or Angelina running over to Bono’s house for some sugar. Soundds a lot like my neighborhood, only…well…minus the huge, beautiful houses and gorgeous celebrities.
May 30th, 2008 at 9:50 am
WoW how pretty is she???…35 bedrooms bet they fill em all up at the rate they’re going !!!
Just wanted to pop in and tell you to have a nice week-end Julia !!!
Kathy
May 30th, 2008 at 12:54 pm
Those blue shutters sure do pop !
We fly to New Orleans in June. Should I plan to knock on their door ?
I’m right with you on the borrowing sugar.
Although to be frugal I’d just continue to mooch off Allen
May 30th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Oh my word. $70 million? Can you imagine? It’s like a whole other world these people live in, isn’t it?!
May 30th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I love French houses like this. I lived in France when I was younger and they remind me of that time so much. Of course I did not live in a 35 bedroom estate…more like 3 bedrooms, but still. That region of the country is beautiful too.
May 30th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Ok, so beautiful house right. I just don’t get it. I mean
having two homes isn’t bad if you can afford it. But
owning at least five homes? They cannot have that
much money. Even if they do, its kind of stupid. They
could be saving up for retirement, and stuff for their
kids. What if something happens to them? Are they
going to drop all of their payments, draw out of their
debt, and try to sell one of their over sized homes?
Maybe I am being unrealistic or something, but it just
seems like a whole bunch of debt for them and their
kids.
May 30th, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Just wanted to add….pre-Roman must mean really really old.
May 30th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Very Impressive! It’s looks like they are going to have their own village.
Jamie
http://www.jbarnesdesigns.com/
May 31st, 2008 at 7:51 am
It’s excessive, like a hotel on a resort. I think you can have too much of a good thing.
June 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 am
Will 35 bedrooms be enough for all those children?
June 19th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
The blue shutters are great — think they are what gives the place that French country charm, despite its enormous size. Really enjoyed reading this post, and thanks so much for your comment yesterday.
July 5th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
These movie stars live the life of royalty…it’s unbelievable!
July 20th, 2008 at 11:21 pm
[...] verständlich. Denn so schön wie im französischen Château Miraval (Fotos seht ihr hier, klick), haben es Angelina und die Kinder sonst nirgendwo. Dutzende Räume und idyllische Natur. [...]
July 25th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Angelina Jolie is one very lucky woman. Talk about having it all…
July 28th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I’d like to hear more about that 100,000 Waldorf suite. I love your site. It’s really fun to browse!
September 24th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
[...] has it that their last residence (French Chateau) was completely trashed by their six children. The walls were covered in crayon, sinks filled with [...]
October 9th, 2008 at 2:44 am
Ridiculous.