Did Brangelina Buy YSL Summer Home?
(NEW YORK) Brangelina: fashion's newest investors?
Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have reportedly paid $25 million to acquire Château Gabriel, the 127 year-old Anglo-Norman house on the Normandy coast in Deauville that, for the last 27 years, has served as the summer home to Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé.
A call to Emile Garcin Paris, the company representing the residence, was not immediately returned.
Nestled on 75 acres of park-like grounds, the 9,000-square foot, five-story estate-the largest property with a view of the ocean-boasts nine bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a summer salon, billiard room, and servants' quarters. Each bedroom, in fact, is named for a character from Proust's Remembrance of Things Past. If the celebrity couple ever ties the knot, the Russian-style vacation cottage, where the designer sketched many of his collections, is surrounded by a birch grove and would be perfect for the in-laws. A waterfall, lake, apple orchard, stables, and extensive gardens that feature Japanese and English-style plantings round out the compound.
Saint Laurent and Bergé purchased the residence in 1978, after it was abandoned following WWII. Inside, Jolie and Pitt will luxuriate in first-floor rooms that mimic the blue-green colors of Monet's "Waterlilies," said to be a favorite of Saint Laurent's. Extensive personal security aside, an entrance flanked by sphinxes will undoubtedly provide some additional deterrence to what will surely be eager paparazzi.
The on-site helipad should come in handy too, as Pitt is "this close" to attaining his pilot's license.
JIM SHI

