Palais Bulles, also called “Bubble Palace” is a sprawling residence in Théoule-sur-Mer, near Cannes, France. It was designed by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag and originally built for French industrialist Pierre Bernard. It was later purchased by fashion designer Pierre Cardin as a holiday retreat. I can see why these people might like the Bubble Palace. After all, it is unique. Certainly, no one else is likely to have the same house. Many people are very opposed to “cookie cutter houses” after all….and this house was definitely not cookie cutter!! This 13,000-square-foot house was built between 1975 and 1989 for French industrialist Pierre Bernard. Architect Antti Lovag, who saw straight lines as “an aggression against nature,” designed it as a playful space full of joy and surprises.
After Bernard’s death in 1991, fashion designer Pierre Cardin purchased the house. Strangely, Bernard never lived there, yet he described it as his own slice of paradise. He mentioned that its cellular shapes had long mirrored the essence of his creations. He considered it a museum showcasing the work of contemporary designers and artists. It is strange to purchase a palace to use as a museum, but never open it to the public. I 
guess he wanted his own museum, or he simply never got the whole plan into place, unfortunately.
In 2016, French architect Odile Decq completed a five-year renovation. By March 2017, the property was on the market for €350 million, but it didn’t sell. Instead, it could be rented out to groups for $33,200 a day…not something the average family could afford. After Cardin’s death in December 2020, there were suggestions to transform the building into a public space for art exhibitions. The house features a reception hall, a panoramic lounge, a 500-seat open-air amphitheater, 10 bedrooms, and multiple swimming pools and waterfalls set within expansive landscaped grounds. The Palais features 29 rooms, 11 bathrooms, and ten bedrooms, each uniquely decorated by a different artist, including Patrice Breteau, Jerome Tisserand, Daniel You, François Chauvin, and Gerard Cloarec.
The house has been featured is several movies and music videos. While its design is unique, it is really a unique oddity that began in the mind of an artist-architect-designer, and probably never a practical building. It does have a bubble-like look, which makes it interesting, but not practical. I think designers of unusual buildings might be a bit eccentric, and maybe that explains the Bubble Palace.
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