From art into fashion, and from fashion into hotel

The Normandy, by Michelle

Welcome to our little paradise. As a family-run villa hotel, Hotel Normandy is built on warmth, personal touches, and the quiet magic of the Riviera. Step onto your terrace, soak in the sun, and enjoy the breathtaking views of the Mediterranean Sea.

I started by selling sketches to Elle magazine when I was very young. At the Beaux-Arts in Saint-Germain we did portraits, and we drew from live models to understand the shape of the body. It was an incredible school, full of creative people, and I have never stopped drawing.

Then I met Dag, my husband, at the fashion fair in Paris in the seventies. He had a fashion company; I joined it and became its head designer and creative director. For thirty years we made prêt-à-porter for women in Scandinavia — everything from daywear to evening — and we travelled for it, all over Europe and to India. A Norwegian wants what a Norwegian hasn't got, and a Parisian wants what a Parisian doesn't have. To the Norwegians I was probably rather exotic. I brought them something from my culture, and they gave me theirs.

A secret we didn't keep

We loved the Riviera, and we had always dreamed of a hotel. The Normandy had been a hotel for a very long time when we first stayed here as guests. A neighbour in Norway had told us about it, and about Plage Mala, and asked us to keep it a secret. We didn't manage that. Cap-d'Ail is unique — so close to Monaco, so close to the airport, so close to Italy, and yet you can hear the sea. Before we left, Dag asked at reception whether the hotel might be for sale.

A villa on the French Riviera

I never wanted this to feel like a normal hotel. I want you to feel transported into someone's villa in the South of France — where the host makes you breakfast and pours you a drink; where you can sit and read a book while you wait for your partner; where you look around the room and see all the things we have collected, and step out onto the balcony for the sea and the smell of the nature around you. It is not pretentious. It is artistic.

The blue was already here

The blue shutters were here when we arrived. Everything else we found. The Venetian mirrors we bought; the ikat cushions were my mother's; the sunflower painting came from the flea market in Nice, and the velvet sofas from an antique dealer along the coast. I wanted the house to be made of the things of this region, so that it feels like here and nowhere else. Blue is the colour I cannot live without — many, many tones of it — which you will have noticed.

Dag

Dag loved the lemon tree in front of the house above everything, and he made Limoncello from it so that he would have something of it every season. He talked to every guest. He was simply a very warm and relaxing person, and he put everyone at ease. He left us in 2021, in his ninety-first year. The lemon tree is on our logo for him.

What I want you to do here

Today my son Jo and I look after the house. Go down to the beach. Walk the coastal path from Plage Mala to Monaco — it is exceptional, past all the old villas. Eat everything France offers you. See Monaco at night. And in the morning, open the shutters and look at the Mediterranean: the sailing boats, the yachts, the blue, the trees and the architecture of Cap-d'Ail. Especially if you don't live by the sea. My favourite place is the balcony at the front where we serve breakfast, and the little balconies of the sea-view rooms. Sit there.

If you write to me a year from now, I hope it says: Michelle, we had a wonderful stay, thank you again, we can't wait to come back — and we did remember to kiss.

Michelle