Villa Ariem: Suzanne Lenglen's historic pied-à-terre

In Nice, find the house of Suzanne Lenglen exclusively for sale by Côte d'Azur Sotheby's International Realty, real estate agency located at 5 rue Longchamp in Nice. This private mansion in the heart of the city offers a moment of history in the idyllic setting of the French Riviera.

Suzanne Lenglen (1899-1938) was undoubtedly the greatest tennis player of her time. Some experts even believe that she is the greatest undisputed champion. The nicknames given to her, "the divine", "the diva", illustrate the popularity and fame she enjoyed. She is closely linked to the city of Nice, its flagship club, the Nice Lawn Tennis Club (NLTC), and its Villa Ariem, a private mansion in charming shades of yellow offering a green setting at the gates of the Parc Impérial, a mythical building in Nice and the former resort of the Russian imperial family.

Suzanne Lenglen, 1920s, Collection Musée National du Sport The match between Helen Wills and Suzanne Lenglen was played on a court near the Carlton Hotel, a stone's throw from the Croisette, Cannes Municipal Archives

A career closely linked to the city of Nice

It was in Nice that the champion learned to play tennis and became passionate about it. Indeed, although she was born in Paris, the great champion is an emblem of the city of Nice and its sportsmen.

She became world champion in 1914, at the age of 15. Her career took off after the Great War, from 1919 to 1926. She accumulated titles: six times world champion, three times Olympic medallist, six times French champion, six times Wimbledon winner. However, she always remained loyal to the Parc Impérial club, the Nice Lawn Tennis Club (NLTC).

During her years in Nice, she lived in the Villa Ariem, on the avenue that now bears her name. It was in fact in November 1938 at the request of the directors of the Nice Lawn Tennis Club (NLTC), that Suzanne Lenglen's name was given to one of the avenues opened in the former gardens of the Parc Impérial hotel, transformed into a high school since 1930.

The Villa Ariem: a meeting between sporting career and social life

Divided between her sporting exploits and her frivolous antics, she organised mythical evenings at the Villa Ariem, with ever more illustrious guests. Her guests included King Gustav V of Sweden, a faithful guest of Nice and a tennis enthusiast, King Manoel of Portugal, the Maharajah of Kapurtala, the writer Rudyard Kipling (winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature), Prince Troubetskoï, the actors Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks, Florence Gould, the wife of a rich American businessman who invested heavily in the Côte d'Azur, and none other than Jean Médecin, deputy mayor of Nice.

It is from the Villa Ariem that she maintains a long correspondence with her best friend, Antoine Coco Gentien, evoking with him her matches, her love affairs and her social life.

Villa Ariem: an exceptional townhouse in the heart of Nice

Just above the city centre, between the mythical Nice tennis club and the Russian church, symbol of the influence of the Riviera at the beginning of the 20th century, is this very rare 260 m² private mansion offering the beautiful and large volumes of the former, all on a magnificent 1,200 m² garden with swimming pool and petanque court, nicely planted with palm trees.

For more information on this exceptional property or for any real estate project in Nice, contact your experts in prestige real estate at Côte d'Azur Sotheby's International Realty: info@cotedazursothebysrealty.com