Dawn Chorus: Audrey Hepburn’s Swiss villa hits the market for £17 million and research reveals that looking at art can, quite literally, help you live longer

A Swiss fairytale

The 18th century Swiss property that Audrey Hepburn lived in from 1963 until her death in 1993 is for sale, for about £17 million.

La Paisible — which translates to ‘the peaceful place’ — has 12 bedrooms, eight bathrooms and 16,000 sq m of parkland dotted with century-old trees and white rose bushes given to the Hollywood star by fashion house Givenchy. There’s also a heated swimming pool, two indoor garages and outdoor parking for roughly 15 vehicles.

The blue-shuttered villa is located in the lakeside town of Tolochenaz, near Lausanne. The lake — Lac Léman — is famously bisected by the Swiss-French border.

Hepburn described the Swiss retreat as being 'even more a real home than our apartment in Rome because it has a garden and trees.'

After Hepburn’s death (she is buried in Tolochenaz’s graveyard), her sons sold La Paisible in 2021 to Katharina and Jean-Marc Beaujolin who extensively renovated the interiors. ‘We’ve decided to do some downsizing, because it’s just the two of us in this big house, and it felt like the right moment to make a change,’ said Katharina Beaujolin in an interview with Bloomberg.

Hepburn isn’t the only celebrity who spurned the spotlight for a quieter life in Switzerland: Tina Turner (who renounced her US citizenship), Shania Twain and Roger Moore all made the move.

La Paisible is for sale with Knight Frank and subject to Swiss residency permit requirements.

Behind the scenes

Blenheim Palace has announced a new extended tour experience that will offer visitors a chance to peer inside the UNESCO World Heritage Site’s private apartments.

The five additional rooms included in the tour are the Duke’s Bar, the Family Dining Room, the Smoking Room , the Duchess’s Sitting Room and the Grand Cabinet, typically reserved for special family occasions and one of the Palace’s most opulent spaces.

The Grand Cabinet was used as a schoolroom during the Second World War by Lady Rosemary Spencer-Churchill, one of the late Queen’s six Coronation Maids of Honour, chosen to accompany the monarch through Westminster Abbey in 1953.

The art to living longer

The UK’s independent charity for art has launched a health and wellbeing campaign, inspired by research from University College London (UCL) which shows that regular engagement with art is associated with a significantly reduced risk of premature death.

Art Fund’s ‘See More, Live More’ campaign spotlights the health and wellbeing benefits of art and culture. They’ve partnered with Dr Anthony Woods, a researcher at King’s College London, who says that ‘engaging with the arts is proven to help reduce symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress, and will enhance overall mental health.’

Despite the findings, according to reports commissioned and released as part of the campaign, 63% of people surveyed visit a museum or gallery space to ‘de-stress’, but only 6% carve out time to actually do so.

Art Fund’s National Art Pass offers free or discounted entry to more than 400 museums, galleries and historic houses across the UK — including 50% off major exhibitions such as Silk Roads at the British Museum (until 26 February) and The Courtauld's Goya to Impressionism (opening 14 February).

A match made in Florida

The Colony Hotel in Florida’s Palm Beach has unveiled the first images of its new, three-bedroom bungalow, designed by British interior designer Ashley Hicks in collaboration with Cabana magazine’s founder and editor-in-chief, Martina Mondadori.

Mondadori and Hicks were heavily inspired by some of the last century’s greatest decorating names and projects: Yves Saint Laurent’s Villa Mabrouka in Tangier and his Russian dacha at Château Gabriel, Verde Visconti and David Hicks.

David, father of Ashley, decorated King Charles's then Prince of Wales, first apartment at Buckingham Palace and made carpets for Windsor Castle. He married Lady Pamela Mountbatten, younger daughter of Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, in 1960.

The Cabana Bungalow is one of the hotel’s total 14 individually decorated residences. Previous projects have been undertaken with brands such as Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop and AERIN.