{"id":1276,"date":"2010-07-11T18:52:31","date_gmt":"2010-07-11T17:52:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=1276"},"modified":"2010-07-11T18:52:31","modified_gmt":"2010-07-11T17:52:31","slug":"the-cote-d%e2%80%99azur-gives-all-that-poor-little-rich-gays-strive-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=1276","title":{"rendered":"The C\u00f4te d\u2019Azur Gives All that Poor Little Rich Gays Strive For"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sunday 11th<\/sup> July 2010<\/p>\n

I\u2019m lying on a chaise longue (from Argos in fact, superbly bought by Virgil Grayson, one of the world\u2019s leading architects). My view, created by Virgil Grayson, is nine blue agapanthus, then a cork oak, trunk and branch forming an elbow, a bush of some rare kind placed below, to provide an exactly view-finder-shaped shot of the Mediterranean which I can hear effortlessly swishing below.<\/p>\n

The luxury and paradise of it \u2013 I can\u2019t begin to describe. This is the reward that Poor Little Rich Gays yearn for, the whole point of all the shopping, tycoonery, entrepreneuriation, shrife, struggle and contrivance.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re an old-fashioned house party at Virgil\u2019s, rather different from Ralph Kitto\u2019s birthday gathering at the other end of the Riviera two weeks ago. Here are people who don\u2019t know each other, in separate suites with own bathroom. Except that we find, of course, we\u2019ve acquaintance galore in common. It\u2019s a small world when you\u2019re at the top. I was explaining that Peter Finch, the film star, was the half-brother of my aunt by marriage. \u2018Oh, I met him on a train to Rome when I was seventeen,\u2019 a fellow-guest said.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re all very brainy and distinguished. I\u2019m rather out of my depth. But you can slip away and Google to find out who they are. You can also slip away from the table for a rest whenever you feel like it \u2013 not that I do very often. But if only they\u2019d introduce that for London dinner parties…<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a novelist who dined with Doris Saatchi and didn\u2019t recognise George Osborne, Great Britain\u2019s Chancellor of the Exchequer, if you\u2019re in US or foreign. \u2018You seem to know a lot about politics,\u2019 she said. She is writing a novel exploring a person\u2019s life through objects. \u2018Is it like the Antiques Roadshow<\/em>?\u2019 I said.<\/p>\n

Actually that\u2019s one of Robert Nevil\u2019s fav TV programmes –\u00a0 and he\u2019s the mega scholarly (actually checks facts, can you imagine?) historian of the Pony Club.<\/p>\n

The others are either academics or from the museum world. Cedric Partridge, Virgil\u2019s partner, who is not here because he doesn\u2019t take the July heat on the C\u00f4te, is from the Museum world. He is a frequent flyer, usually with a small Rembrandt on the neighbour seat \u2013 taking it to an exhibish somewhere, you see. An Australian Greatness motored up\u00a0 from Rome University and has had stern words with Virgil about the stairs here being done with Satin Finish not Matt.\u00a0 The stairs in a new building at Rome by a very great lady architect – I should say \u2018woman architect\u2019 but I won\u2019t – are also unsatisfactory. There’s dust and rubbish visible underneath them.<\/p>\n

Virgil also likes to have young people. Over the years, some of them have been perfectly outrageous. Virgil looks on, benign and unfussed. Now he has a hot het with an outdoor streak and Calvin Klein red tops who is in charge of one of the building projects on another continent and goes to functions with the patrons who wear especially-made paper frocks which are afterwards put in a museum.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve really got to go. A kitchen scene is brewing. The novelist has started the risotto but the Australian Greatness was going to do it!\u00a0 It\u2019s the risotto war fought entre <\/em>Bruce MacBain and Rufus Pitman at Anthony Mottram\u2019s Tuscan villa circa 1994 all over again.<\/p>\n

That was with knives!<\/p>\n

Well, not really.<\/p>\n

And I still<\/em> haven\u2019t fitted in the Ralph Kitto birthday party!<\/p>\n

\"Tomato

Tomato Styling at Virgil Grayson's <\/p><\/div>\n

\"Table-Styling

Table-Styling at Virgil Grayson's - Ikea Very Skilfully Bought<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Carla

Carla Bruni's Parents' Villa is Here - near Virgil Grayson's <\/p><\/div>\n

\"Table-Styling

Table-Styling at Virgil Grayson's - Ikea Cleverly Bought. You, too Could Do This<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Organic

Organic Outdoor Shower at Virgil Grayson's Made of Tree Stump<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sunday 11th July 2010 I\u2019m lying on a chaise longue (from Argos in fact, superbly bought by Virgil Grayson, one of the world\u2019s leading architects). My view, created by Virgil Grayson, is nine blue agapanthus, then a cork oak, trunk and branch forming an elbow, a bush of some rare kind placed below, to provide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1276"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1282,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1276\/revisions\/1282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}