Court orders demolition of Riviera chateau

Rory Mulholland and Henry Samuel

A BRITISH couple have won their battle to see the demolition of a sprawling faux palazzo in Provence, which they said had ruined their previously idyllic rural retreat.

Nestling in green hills, olive groves and vineyards behind Grasse, France’s perfume capital, Chateau Diter has provided the glamorous backdrop for society weddings and the UK television drama Riviera.

Now its businessman owner, Patrick Diter, has been ordered to tear down the development, after judges ruled the initial building permit had been obtained fraudulently in 2006.

All structures built since then – including 3,000 sq m of accommodation, a heliport, a swimming pool and an approach road through a protected wood – must be removed, the court ruled.

Mr Diter, whose lawyer said he would appeal against the ruling, was ordered to restore the property to the relatively modest 200 sq m country home it was before 2006.

He was given a threemonth suspended jail sentence and a fine of €200,000 (£176,000), far less than the €200 million prosecutors had sought.

There was no immediate reaction from neighbours, including British couple Stephen and Caroline Butt, who have been battling for years against the chateau owner.

But they were likely delighted that the parties at mind-bending decibel levels would stop. For the TV miniseries Riviera, the chateau was the home of actress Julia Stiles’s character, Georgina.

Mr Butt, a London-based fund manager, and his wife have a beautiful domain and garden originally designed by Russell Page, whose celebrity clients included the Duchess of Windsor. Along with a band of equally appalled French neighbours, the couple have been fighting Mr Diter’s seemingly insatiable expansion plans.