France · French Riviera · Venue guide

A Wedding at Palais Bulles, French Riviera

There is no other wedding venue in the world like Palais Bulles – the Bubble Palace, a house of round rooms, porthole windows and terraces tumbling down the red rocks of the Estérel coast above the Bay of Cannes. Laura and Evan married here in August 2022, and filming their wedding felt like working inside a living work of art.

Aerial view of Palais Bulles above the Bay of Cannes

Where: Théoule-sur-Mer, above the Bay of Cannes
Architect: Antti Lovag, built between 1975 and 1989
Owned by: Pierre Cardin from the early 1990s, a listed monument since 1999
Getting there: About 40–45 minutes from Nice airport, 13 km from Cannes

The Bubble Palace

The Hungarian-born architect Antti Lovag, who believed that people should live in round spaces, designed the house for the industrialist Pierre Bernard. It was built over many years from 1975, a cluster of concrete bubbles set into the rocks, with suspended pools, an open-air amphitheatre for around five hundred people and ten suites, each decorated by a contemporary artist. After Bernard’s death the fashion designer Pierre Cardin bought it and made it his summer home and a stage for culture and fashion – Dior presented its 2016 Cruise collection here. In 1999 the house was listed as a historic monument.

The round windows and bubble forms of Palais Bulles

A wedding at Palais Bulles

Since 2017 the house can be booked for private events, including weddings. Laura and Evan had their Jewish ceremony under a chuppah of flowers in the open-air amphitheatre, with the Mediterranean behind them; then the guests gathered on the lawn among the bubbles, and the night ended with dinner, a live band and dancing until late. The wedding was planned by My Wedding French Riviera, with a rehearsal dinner and pool party at Hotel Casa Rose in Cannes.

A wedding in the open-air amphitheatre of Palais Bulles above the sea

A bride and groom in a round window of Palais Bulles

A wedding party with a live band at Palais Bulles

Getting there

Nice Côte d’Azur airport is about 40 to 45 minutes away by car, and private planes can land at Cannes-Mandelieu, just a few minutes from the house. Cannes is about 13 km away, and Théoule has its own station on the coastal railway. Guests usually stay in Cannes or in the hotels along the coast.

Filming at the Bubble Palace

Every corner of the house is a frame – round windows, curved walls, the blue of the sea and the red of the rocks. I like to film the portraits in the late afternoon, when the light rakes across the bubbles, and the drone shows how the house grows out of the cliff. A legal French marriage takes place at the town hall, so most couples marry legally at home and celebrate here with a symbolic ceremony. More about weddings in Provence and on the French Riviera.