TELLS US WHY LIFE IS SWEET AS SHE OPENS THE DOORS OF HER BEAUTIFUL MANSION IN THE SOUTH OF FRANCE

INTERVIEW & PRODUCTION: NANA BOTTAZZI

Interior designer Claudia, who has given France’s famous Ladurée patisserie stores a new look, and three of her four children – (from left) Liam, 17, 15-year-old Joia and Anders, 22 – are photographed at their weekend home in the historic town of Saint-Rémy de Provence, in southern France, surrounded by olive and cypress trees (right)

‘The town’s become very fashionable due to Caroline of Monaco, who used to live here and still visits often’

‘By chance I found myself outside a real estate agency where this house was advertised. When I went to visit, I fell in love’

If you have an eye for colour, you will not fail to be charmed by Saint-Rémy de Provence, where honey-coloured stone houses nestle amid pines beneath the azure sky.

Loved by artists including Matisse, this is where Van Gogh painted Starry Night and where Nostradamus was born.

And now a connection has been established between Saint-Rémy and the rainbow creations of world-famous luxury patissier Ladurée, whose much-Instagrammed macarons many would call edible art.

Indeed, the village is the home of interior designer Claudia Ravnbø, who has been commissioned to design Ladurée shops and tea-rooms from Kuwait to Kazakhstan as part of the 150-year-old French brand’s expansion.

ELEGANT LIVING

Norwegian-born Claudia studied at Goldsmith’s College in London and got her BA in fine arts at the Glasgow School of Art before settling here in France, where her dreamy Mediterranean mansion comes complete with pool and stables.