Alice de Rothschild

 

Alice was born in Frankfurt on February 17, 1847. After the death of her mother when she was only twelve years old, Alice grew up in Vienna where her father assumed the management of the bank that he had just inherited. But his father's frequent professional displacements deprive the young teenager of a real family cocoon. Closed but gifted with a lively intelligence, Alice went for several years to be welcomed by the many members of her family scattered throughout Europe. Responding to an invitation from her sister Julie in February 1865, she discovered the city of Nice and the Côte d'Azur.

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After Baron Anselme's death, Ferdinand decided to build Waddesdon Castle in Buckinghamshire. Alice is consulted to transform the vast farmland of the estate into a magnificent park. This occupation will open up new horizons for the young woman. The arrangement of the gardens allows her to give free rein to her passion for flowers.

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Her health problems forced her to look for a milder climate to spend the winters, far from the English mists. The Côte d' Azur, which she discovered at the invitation of her sister Julie, attracts her for the richness of Mediterranean vegetation. She chooses to live in Grasse. 

 

Alice de Rothschid died in Paris on May 3, 1922, the local press regretted: "The Baroness de Rothschild is no longer: something changed in Grasse".