A little history*

The contemporary history of Escalet really begins in 1913 with the installation of Maurice Bergès and his family in a villa called by the people of Ramatuel "Villa Bergès" (see insert). At that time, Maurice Bergès bought more than 150 hectares from the inhabitants of Ramatuelle to build his own house and that of his employees.

The Escalet property was born.

Maurice Bergés died in 1923, bequeathing this immense property to his 4 children.

At the beginning of the 1950s, the latter decided to sell their land in two almost equal shares to a Parisian industrialist and to the Société Civile Immobilière du domaine de l'Escalet, incorporated in 1952. This SCI bought the land of the current estate.

For the record, 2 of the partners of this SCI - one American, the other English - tried to create a holiday centeres** for Anglo-Saxons, a venture that will fail following a decision by the Americans to withdraw financially from the project given the Algerian war and a possible French internal conflict.

On October 30, 1958, the SCI du domaine de l'Escalet sold the 81 hectares of the property acquired in 1953 to the SCI "Sciescal" - whose partners - Messrs. Smadja and Leredu - surrounded themselves before signing a certain number precautions, two of which were certainly decisive in carrying out the desired real estate transaction.

- Obtaining the town planning certificate issued by the Departmental Director of Town Planning which specifies, among other things, to buyers that in the tourist area (the major part of the property), a density of 5 dwellings is allowed at the hectare and the creation of a road delimiting the forest and tourist areas.

The possibility of dividing the tourist part into 200 lots*** is thus approved.

- The acceptance of Mr. Robert Le Bel - commercial agent and exclusive seller of the Company promoting the Pampelonne beach subdivision recognized and appreciated by one of the administrators - to become the exclusive commercial agent of the SCI for the sale of land to Escalet.

November 9, 1958: Messrs. Leredu and Smadja meet at the Café de l'Ormeau in Ramatuelle with the shareholders of Sciescal and have Mr. Le Bel sign an agreement in which they entrust him with the exclusive promotion of the 217 lots with a minimum of 20 sales per year .

April 19, 1960: Prefectural decree of approval issued and sales authorized

August 11, 1962: Creation of the Syndicale Association of the owners of the Escalet to solve the problems raised as the construction of the villas progresses.

For example :

- the problems encountered in the adjoining areas - created by the architect in 1958 to take into account the narrowness of certain plots or simply to preserve the view - on which one can find side by side a traditional Mediterranean type house and a modern architecture villa,

- the problems related to the construction zones drawn on the paper plan annexed to the initial specifications without worrying about the topography of the ground (huge rock to be blown up with dynamite) or the vegetation present (uprooting of a magnificent umbrella pine )

For the anecdote: a recreational and commercial area was envisaged in 1958 in one of the chapters of the Escalet development programme. In 1969, the ASL organized a referendum among the owners of the Escalet on the establishment of the commercial zone. The “no” wins and in its place is built the current car park. As for the recreational area, 2 tennis courts were built in 1972, supplemented by a 3rd during a new subscription.

* Book “L’Escalet a century of history”: Robert Le Bel

** prefabricated houses in England must be installed on the whole of the amphitheater which dominates the sea thus constituting a real urban center living in quasi autarky - the supply having to be imported from across the Channel

*** an expert surveyor from Carqueiranne, Mr. Henri Paul and an architect, Grand Prix de Rome, Mr. Robert Bizet initially created on 44 Ha, 217 lots ranging from 700 to 7000 m buildable in the American style without fences with for each lot construction zones drawn on the overall plan of the estate so that the future villas cannot harm each other with regard to their sea view. In the same specifications, the developer undertakes to bury the ducts of water, electricity and telephone. However, the promoter, afraid of not being able to negotiate the very large plots located far from the seaside, decided to split them up a little later, which brought the number of lots to 240 in 1989.

Insert on the Villa Bergès

Maurice Bergès is the son of Aristide Bergès, a very talented engineer, founder of the Bergès paper mills in Lancer (Isère) and father of white coal - he was the first to capture high waterfalls from the mountain for the production of electrical energy for the benefit of its paper mill.

Maurice is passionate about Greece, its architecture and its landscapes.

He discovers the Escalet and compares this site blessed by the Gods to those he is used to treading in Greece.

He decides to build a house called "villa Bergès" composed of 2 tetrastyle pediments. For the interior decoration, he had frescoes of Hellenic art made.

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His villa is called "Artemision" to echo a sculpture installed on its terrace - a replica of Artemis called "Diana of Versailles" currently in the Louvre.

So steeped in ancient Greece, he renamed all the surroundings of Escalet with names borrowed from Greek mythology, starting by calling the escalet “Heskalé”!

The war of 39 - 45 is fatal for the villa. Occupied by Italian and then German soldiers, it was ransacked by the locals after the landing in Provence. It will only be a ruin in the 50s

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