Johnny Depp sells his haven of peace and quiet in Le Var
His “divine idyll” now at an end, Johnny Depp whom 30 year-olds the world over, then teenagers, discovered with great excitement in the 1980’s TV series “21 Jump Street”, is heading back to the land of Uncle Sam, turning the final page of a love-story in Le Var…
Vanessa, the French singer-actress famous since her hit “Joe le Taxi”, crossed the path of “Edward Scissorhands”, a rebel with a big heart, in 1998. The star, who had lit up the screen in “Noce Blanche” and the poetic “Elisa”, did not take long in falling for a little corner of “paradis” in Le Var, 25 minutes from Saint-Tropez. It was no doubt in this Provençal property of 1,000 m2 (12 suites) that she played her most important role, that of the mother of a little girl with a fairytale name and little Jack, a name undoubtedly chosen in homage to the pirate-hero Jack Sparrow, played by his father. For many years, the legendary love-birds set their seal on a bond between France and the USA, doll and bad boy, music and movies, raising their children far from the footlights, glitz and glamour. People hoped for a very long time that the Paradis-Depp couple would open the gates to their Garden of Eden. They resisted. It was said that she was preparing her big comeback on the music scene, that Monsieur was busy painting. Except that life finally caught up with them, and “Marylin and John” decided, in all discretion and dignity, not to go on playing their “variations sur le même t’aime”.
A 10-million euro renovation later, each photo of the property in Le Var on 37 acres of gently sloping land gives a glimpse of this former privacy : ten houses, a real private hamlet comprised of the main building, several guest cottages, a chapel, a hunter’s lodge, an artist’s studio, even a restaurant. Donnie Brasco’s personal belongings are still to be found in this place of enchantment, though the good-looking guy in his fifties has left for other horizons. A Bohemian ambiance rather like a stage-set, where it’s clear that the owners preferred charm to ostentatious luxury, wide-open country space to crowded shorelines, old stone to cardboard palaces. Here one basks in an old property with the patina of many long years. It was mentioned for the first time on the cadastral plan in 1812. Here, magic reigns supreme, in the vines, olive-grove, vegetable garden, fountains, a pool surrounded by sand with a beach bar, a small pond and its skateboard circuit. No famous interior decorator, but instead the endless imagination of one of Hollywood’s greatest stars… And quite evidently, a great deal of love.
This same love that the new owner, capable of parting with 23,056,000 € and surely something of a collector and movie-fan, will have to share for Provence, old stone and the tranquillity of the Var’s authentic scenery.
Sotheby’s International Realty France - Monaco (00 377 97 70 35 15).
