The last 2 weeks in St. Tropez are the busiest weeks all year. Everybody tries to book dates for their parties in advance, but there are a few annual party-givers we know to schedule in – Ivana Trump, Simon Rubens, Tony Murray and Gihad Saad. It is more than 15 years they give their parties in St. Tropez (and always on the same date every year!). Even this year usual party-givers like Goga Aschkenazi, Andrea Dibelius, and Christian Voight were not giving parties because the schedules were very intense.
This year I stayed with Andrea Dibelius, who is known as the ‘love and peace’ girl because of her annual 1000-person Love and Peace parties. The season began with Lisa Tchangies and Thomas Le Qulerq’s Eyes Wide Shut-themed party, which was followed by Lora Preston’s white party where Gypsy Kings performed. Meanwhile Denise Rich gave a Circus-themed party for guests like Buzz Aldrin, Jerry Hall, Magic Johnson, Ivana Trump and Jackie Collins.
Some of the highlights was Janna Bullock’s cowboy party and Gihad Saad’s annual 1000-person Arabian Night party. Gihad covers his whole property with Persian rugs and the food arrives as a procession with fireworks, belly dancers, and men carrying whole roasted lambs and pigs. It is quite a show, especially the first year you see it! Gihad’s party was followed by the annual Monika Bacardi party. This year Monika hired the same party planners as Carole Ascher used for her Venice fairytale event. There were flower girls on stilts, fair ladies covered in roses and women sitting on top of fountains throwing rose petals.
Claude Ott followed next night with his annual white party at his brand new white house called Octopussy. His 400 guests drank Ott Rose wine, danced and ate foie gras and black caviar all night. The next day my friend Oleg Tchetsoff gave a party on his yacht GO. For me it was the most fun party because we had a cousin of David Getta as our DJ. He rocked the house, and we danced til 6am, when breakfast was served to those who were still up! Closing out our busy weeks was Ivana Trump’s party, followed by Simon Rubens’ party, Carol Ascher’s party, then Tony Murray and Jean Jack Murray’s party and, finally, Claudia Van Leer’s 20th wedding anniversary celebration.
While some people have now headed off to Ibiza, I’m on my way to Sardinia to celebrate Fawaz Gruosi’s birthday!
