Homes, hotels & restaurants
Chalets de Claude Nobs
- Type
- Private residence
- Address
- Caux, sur les hauts de Montreux
Not open to visitors
Perched at Caux, above Montreux, Claude Nobs’s chalets (Le Picotin, Le Grillon and L’Éclisse) rank among the most singular places in the history of music. From 1982 onwards, the founder of the Montreux Jazz Festival welcomed his guests there around fondues that became legendary: Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, Prince, Quincy Jones and so many others admired the view over Lake Geneva amid a unique collection of jukeboxes, records and archives. Now maintained by the Claude Nobs Foundation, the chalets are private property and cannot be freely visited. Among the treasures kept there is a black Japanese kimono embroidered with cranes, pines and waves, one of two that Freddie Mercury gave to Claude Nobs and Thierry Amsallem; the other, a white one, is on display at the Montreux Jazz Café.
Claude Nobs’s retreat
The night “Under Pressure” was born
One evening Claude Nobs invited Queen and David Bowie to his home for a barbecue. At midnight he suggested the musicians go down to the studio. They went, and came back two hours later: “Under Pressure” was born.
The chalets, up above Montreux, were full of objects: Wurlitzer jukeboxes, sound equipment, the black kimono Freddie Mercury gave to Claude Nobs and Thierry Amsallem, the studio piano Freddie played, gifts from him and from David Bowie, a print signed by Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones, a larger-than-life bust of Aretha Franklin, instruments belonging to Carlos Santana, a trumpet belonging to Quincy Jones.
Over the years, the chalets welcomed more than ten thousand artists. Each left a mark: David Bowie often turned up with plastic gifts, Freddie Mercury with crystal glasses. “In his youth he was poor and dreamed of drinking champagne from crystal glasses,” recalls Thierry Amsallem (« L’invité », TV5MONDE).
The chalets are not open to visitors: they can only be rented for private events. They can, however, be seen from the Coucou hotel-restaurant, just above them.
In pictures
Related artists :Claude NobsRag'n'Bone ManFreddie MercuryDavid BowieQueenNina Simone