Walking down to investigate the beach at Villefranche-sur-Mer, we came across the entrance to Villa Nellcôte [Map], once the headquarters of the local Gestapo, and in the summer of 1971, where the Rolling Stones recorded ‘Exile on Main Street‘.

I remembered reading about it, and seeing some photos of the house in ‘Spanish Tony’ Sanchez’s ‘Up and Down with The Rolling Stones‘, but we couldn’t see much beyond the main gates.

Dominique Tarle took some amazing photos there when he was allowed full access to the house that summer, published in a limited edition book ‘Exile’ – you can see quite a few of them here, and there’s a nice feature KEITH RICHARDS & GRAM PARSONS 1971 | SUMMER IN EXILE @ VILLA NELLCOTE, over on the ever excellent The Selvedge Yard.