{"id":949280,"date":"2026-05-09T23:23:27","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:23:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/949280\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T23:23:27","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T23:23:27","slug":"the-rolling-stones-exile-in-france-affairs-fast-cars-and-child-drug-mules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/949280\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rolling Stones\u2019 exile in France: affairs, fast cars and child drug mules"},"content":{"rendered":"

The French authorities viewed the arrival of the Rolling Stones in 1971 as one might the invasion of the Vandals and the Goths. Towns started shoring up their defences. An early attempt to settle the band in a villa in the picturesque village of Mougins, near Cannes, was met with panic. The mayor, Georges Pellegrin, announced, \u201cWe definitely don\u2019t want them here. We have many important people living here\u201d \u2014 including Pablo Picasso \u2014 \u201cand we don\u2019t want long-haired singers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jo Bergman, the Stones\u2019 personal assistant, was given the task of finding houses for each of the band members and their families as they settled into a new life as tax exiles. Mick Jagger and his girlfriend, Bianca P\u00e9rez-Mora de Mac\u00edas, hopscotched between hotels in Paris and St Tropez until they could move into an estate near Antibes, owned by Prince Rainier of Monaco\u2019s uncle. Charlie Watts settled his family in a farmhouse near Aix-en-Provence (which would leave him with a monstrous commute of \u201ca six-and-a-half or seven-hour drive along these little roads\u201d). <\/p>\n

Bill Wyman, his girlfriend, Astrid Lundstrom, and her sister, Ulla, moved into La Bastide Saint-Antoine in Grasse, practically next door to the artist Marc Chagall. Mick Taylor and his partner, Rose Millar, along with their baby daughter, Chlo\u00eb, rented a house near Bill, owned by a Russian who called herself Madame Tolstoy. But it was Keith Richards who wound up with the grand prize.<\/p>\n

Glorious house, terrible studio<\/p>\n

Villa Nellc\u00f4te, in the sleepy seaside village of Villefranche-sur-Mer, was a magnificent, 16-room neoclassical mansion with vast grounds, lush gardens and a tennis court, on a headland above the Mediterranean. The back porch looked out over palms and olive trees and sloped down to a jetty, where a speedboat waited on the water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keith moved in on April 3 with his one-year-old son, Marlon, and his labrador. From then on Villa Nellc\u00f4te functioned as ground zero for the Rolling Stones in France \u2014 and for the album that would become Exile on Main St.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"KeithRichards, Anita Pallenberg, their son, Marlon, and his labrador outside Villa Nellc\u00f4teGetty images<\/p>\n

The hangers-on began circling immediately: girls and drug dealers by the gates, hippies sunbathing nude on the adjacent beach. Stash de Rola, a Prussian aristocrat, moved in. \u201cThe whole atmosphere was suffused in a kind of French debauchery,\u201d said Robin Millar, the 19-year-old brother of Mick Taylor\u2019s girlfriend and another frequent guest.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Exactly where to record was unclear. Other bands might have used the ground floor banqueting room with its grand acoustics. Not the Stones. The living quarters were sacrosanct. The dining room was for eating; bedrooms were for shagging. \u201cWe ended up in Keith\u2019s basement,\u201d Mick recalled, \u201cand the basement was crummy in every possible way.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bobby Keys, the saxophonist, described it as \u201ca catacombs\u201d but it was more like a dungeon made up of cubicles so small that no two instrumentalists could be in the same room at the same time; often there wasn\u2019t even enough space for their equipment. It was dark and damp. Electrical wires snaked from room to room, crackling and sparking in the ancient sockets. If the electricity failed, which it often did, candles were lit. The acoustics were horrendous. Until their mobile recording unit arrived, it was impossible to get serious work done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Vintage champagne and pink heroin<\/p>\n

On April 14 Anita Pallenberg, Keith\u2019s girlfriend, steamrolled into Nellc\u00f4te, fresh from rehab and claiming she was \u201cclean\u201d but with an entourage that included her drug dealer, Tony Sanchez. She took over the villa\u2019s round-the-clock management. Aside from Mick, she was the only person able to converse in French with the household staff, over whom she presided like a drill sergeant. The villa came with a French chef, G\u00e9rard Mosiniak. Anita buttonholed Mosiniak and overhauled the downstairs kitchen. Meals were to be available any time of the day and would now function as feasts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were massive amounts of meat, birds, sweetmeats, huge salads and cheeses. Plus top-quality alcohol, vintage bottles of champagne, great marijuana and cocaine. So nothing was normal and everything was surreal,\u201d Robin recalled. \u201cAll of Keith\u2019s friends from all over the world descended on this place as if it were a holiday camp,\u201d Mick Taylor said. \u201cWe would sit down to dinner in the evening, all around this wooden table, and there would sometimes be 45 people there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001077050354\"Richards entertains diners including the singer Gram Parsons, fourth left in a dark shirt, and Pallenberg, right, on the terraceDominique Tarl\u00e9<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t long before Jean de Breteuil, a self-styled \u201cdealer to the stars\u201d arrived. He had reportedly sold the fatal dose of heroin to Janis Joplin in 1970. Afterwards he fled to Paris and then on to Villa Nellc\u00f4te with a house gift of pure pink Thai heroin that gave him an all-access pass.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Soon, cocaine and heroin were as plentiful as food at Villa Nellc\u00f4te. Anyone who wanted got a regular taste. Keith evolved into a full-time junkie.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jagger\u2019s shotgun wedding <\/p>\n

The first rehearsal, on May 5, was a loose review of recent material. Halfway through it, Mick let slip that on May 12 he and Bianca were marrying in St Tropez. The news was a bombshell, especially for Keith. Mick hadn\u2019t taken him into his confidence \u2014 Keith had a contempt for the tradition, viewing marriage as a bourgeois affair. Neither did Mick tell him that Bianca was four months pregnant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Everything about the wedding was last minute. The guest list was assembled on 48 hours\u2019 notice, a who\u2019s who of rock\u2019n\u2019roll nobility booked onto a chartered jet from Gatwick airport. Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr and their wives were on board (seated at opposite ends of the cabin as McCartney was suing his Beatles bandmates), as were Eric Clapton, members of the Small Faces, including the future Stone Ronnie Wood, Pete Townshend and Keith Moon from the Who, Peter Frampton, Stephen Stills, the film director Roger Vadim, the photographer Patrick Lichfield, the designer Ossie Clark and Mick\u2019s parents \u2014 75 passengers in all. The music producer Jimmy Miller, who marvelled at the amount of pot and cocaine circulating on the flight, quipped, \u201cI don\u2019t think this plane needs any fuel to fly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ThePaul and Linda McCartney and their children, Mary, left, and Heather, at Gatwick airport en route to Mick and Bianca Jagger\u2019s weddingGetty images<\/p>\n

Three other guests arrived in a gypsy-style caravan stolen from the singer Donovan. Tommy Weber, the estranged husband of one of Anita\u2019s friends from rehab, travelled overland with his two sons \u2014 Jake, eight, and Charlie, seven \u2014 and a wedding gift of cocaine. \u201cWe got the drugs in Holland, two or three kilos of coke, from my father\u2019s partner in crime, a Romanian gypsy named Taffy,\u201d Jake Weber recalled. \u201cDad duct-taped the drugs to me and Charlie, a pack on our back, a pack on our chests. He did a test run with us to see if we could handle it before arriving in Nice. And believe me, we were terrified.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"StonesPallenberg, Richards and Marlon, left, with the drug mules Jake and Charlie Weber at the ceremonyGetty images<\/p>\n

St Tropez was overrun with stargazers, tabloid press and paparazzi. A civil ceremony at the town hall was followed by a Catholic service at Chapelle Sainte-Anne. The bride and groom arrived at the church angry and frazzled. They were greeted by the two Weber children, the drug mules, who were pressed into service as pageboys. Keith, dressed in a green military jacket, no shirt and black tights, served as best man. None of the other Rolling Stones were invited, nor had the British guests from the charter flight shown up on time. It was only afterwards, at the reception, that Charlie, Bill and Mick Taylor and their families were admitted to the festivities along with 200 others, including Brigitte Bardot.<\/p>\n

\"JaggerMick and Bianca tie the knot at Chapelle Sainte-Anne on May 12, 1971. Guests included the royal photographer Patrick Lichfield, third right in a light blazer Getty images<\/p>\n

The party raged until the morning, fuelled by champagne, cocaine and performances by the famous guests. Mick largely ignored Bianca, who decamped to her hotel room early on. He sang lead on a number of R&B staples, finally stealing away slightly before 5am. The next day Mick and Bianca boarded a yacht for a ten-day honeymoon to Corsica and Sardinia. Any new music would be put off for at least two weeks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Les cowboys<\/p>\n

With Mick away, Keith and Anita threw what became an around-the-clock house party. \u201cWe all lived like a family at Nellc\u00f4te,\u201d Mick Taylor recalled. \u201cA dysfunctional family. Keith was in charge and pulled the strings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anyone deemed fascinating or useful was welcome to come and stay. John Lennon and Yoko Ono turned up, as did any number of court jesters, lost souls and criminals.<\/p>\n

Keith was out of control. He and Anita zipped around the coastline in his Jaguar E-type, or they\u2019d fire up the Mandrax 2, his speedboat, and hightail it Antibes, Juan-les-Pins, Menton or Cap Ferrat \u2014 or run down to Italy for breakfast. \u201cWild days,\u201d Anita called them.<\/p>\n

Before long they got wilder. During an argument in Beaulieu harbour, Keith pulled an enormous hunting knife on the harbourmaster, then threatened him with his son\u2019s toy pistol, not anticipating that the harbourmaster had a real one.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another time, Keith and the dealer Tony Sanchez got into a fight in a shack at the harbour. \u201cThere was some kind of conflict,\u201d remembered Jake Weber, who was in Keith\u2019s car. \u201cThis guy came out, staggering, all f***ed up with blood pouring from his eye socket. Keith had hit him with his skull ring. And Keith had a gun, a .38. So we had to speed back to the house and get rid of the guns and drugs before the police showed up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Keith was eventually charged but somehow, after an apology, a few autographed Rolling Stones albums and, he was sure, money spent, he was off the hook.<\/p>\n

Drugs were taking over. Nellc\u00f4te\u2019s chef quit. He was replaced by his young steward, John-Jacques Busato. \u201cFat Jacques\u201d, as he was known, had a talent for drug trafficking. According to Keith, he was \u201cthe Marseille connection\u201d who brought them pure heroin from the port. He also came with a posse \u2014 three Corsicans who dressed in tacky western garb and were promptly dubbed les cowboys by the Nellc\u00f4te occupants.\u00a0<\/p>\n

They were disagreeable characters, just this side of violent. Keith considered them useful, so he put them on the payroll, gave them menial jobs as assistant gardeners and cooks and a place to live inside the gates.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt started to get really scary,\u201d Anita admitted. \u201cAll these hoods from Marseille \u2014 these guys were dealing from our house.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were also making themselves at home. \u201cThe cowboys would be scoffing food and drinking Dom P\u00e9rignon,\u201d Robin Millar recalled. Personal items began disappearing from the house and they began gouging Keith on the price of drugs.<\/p>\n

Recording begins (finally)<\/p>\n

It was almost an act of mercy when Mick returned from his honeymoon. Music took precedence again.<\/p>\n

On June 7, the \u201cmighty mobile\u201d recording unit arrived, but the schedule was laughable. \u201cI woke in the afternoon, had breakfast at 7pm and we started recording at nine,\u201d the producer Jimmy Miller recalled. \u201cLunch was 10.30pm, then we kept going until five in the morning. Then we\u2019d play poker and go to bed around noon.\u201d<\/p>\n

During the day the basement rooms were sweltering. Bobby, the saxophonist, recalled that \u201cit was hotter than hell in there. We were wearing bathing suits, shorts and flip-flops and drinking lots of whisky and beer\u201d. Guitars were impossible to keep tuned.<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001077050381\"Richards, Jagger and, lying down, the producer Jimmy Miller, in the basementDominique Tarl\u00e9<\/p>\n

\"BobbyKeith Richards, far left, and Jimmy Miller take it easy while Jim Price, left, and Bobby Keys record horn partsDominique Tarl\u00e9<\/p>\n

Despite all the hurly-burly and the madness, as Keith noted, \u201csongs started coming out\u201d. By the end of June there were 20 or more songs in some stage of development.<\/p>\n

But it was a grind getting them to the finish line. Arrangements would go around in circles. \u201cIt was a nightmare,\u201d Bill said. \u201cInstead of working on a song for two hours, you worked on it for two f***ing weeks.\u201d \u201cDrugs were f***ing things up,\u201d said Marshall Chess, the Stones\u2019 record-label manager.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mick Taylor, only 22, started to dabble with heroin. \u201cHe was an innocent when he arrived in France,\u201d said June Shelley, who was the Stones\u2019 PA in France. \u201cBut he and Rose worshipped Keith and Anita to a scary degree and were led down the wrong path.\u201d<\/p>\n

No one spread as much malevolence as Jean de Breteuil, who\u2019d spent the summer housesitting Keith\u2019s Chelsea flat. Marianne Faithfull had lived there with him for a few months, long enough for him to turn her into a self-described \u201chopeless junkie\u201d. He did the same to the actress Talitha Getty, who eventually died of an overdose. In Paris with Marianne one weekend, he provided the fatal dose of heroin to Jim Morrison.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another visitor caught in heroin\u2019s grip turned up at Nellc\u00f4te in late July. The singer Gram Parsons was one of Keith\u2019s dearest friends but no one was prepared for the shape he was in. He could barely play the guitar and was \u201ctotally zonked out of his head\u201d, according to Jo Bergman, the band\u2019s assistant.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018Mick and Keith were really bitchy\u2019<\/p>\n

Mick and Bianca took off for Ireland to visit the Guinness family. When they returned, Bianca left for Switzerland, where she\u2019d decided to have her baby, then moved to Paris to have the baby there instead. Her husband helped to settle her in both locales. Mick\u2019s absences, effectively stalling the sessions, infuriated Keith, fracturing their special bond. Keith also accused Mick of treating Gram with outright hostility. \u201cI\u2019ve no doubt in retrospect,\u201d he concluded, \u201cthat Mick was jealous of me having other male friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MickJagger in his Morgan Plus 8 roadster in St Tropez Getty images<\/p>\n

Some of that may have been valid. But if Mick was rude to Gram it had much to do with his concern for Keith\u2019s welfare. \u201cMick was very worried about Keith,\u201d Bill recalled. Mick\u2019s tie to Keith wasn\u2019t simply a musical partnership. They were like brothers, with all the complications that come with such an attachment. The love was there but it was unspoken.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Keith also took pleasure in pissing Mick off. There were days when Mick showed up to write songs and Keith would make himself scarce. \u201cMick would be on his own in the basement,\u201d Anita said, \u201cand Keith refused to go down there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tension began to permeate the sessions. Mick Taylor took abuse from Keith for playing too loud or getting too creative. \u201cHe was treated like a salaried employee by Mick and Keith, who were really bitchy to him,\u201d Marshall Chess recalled. It became a burden. \u201cSome days,\u201d Anita said, \u201che was too scared to go down to the basement.\u201d The pressure to make headway on the album was relentless. Some housekeeping was required.<\/p>\n

Down to business<\/p>\n

Gram Parsons had outlived his welcome, often passing out at meals mid-sentence or collapsing in a hallway. Anita pressed Keith to do something about it and they put Gram on the next plane to London. Gram was so hurt that he attempted to overdose before he left.<\/p>\n

Tommy Weber and his boys were also on the check-out list. Tommy, whom Keith adored, had pushed his luck too far. \u201cMy dad had always fancied Anita,\u201d Jake Weber says, \u201cand they\u2019d been having sex.\u201d After an argument with Keith about it, Anita, Tommy, Marlon Richards and Tommy\u2019s two boys absconded to a place Tommy had rented in the hills. \u201cNothing was ever going to come of Anita and my dad,\u201d Jake Weber says. \u201cAfter a couple days Anita got sick of him and demanded he take her back to Nellc\u00f4te. That\u2019s when we knew it was time to leave.\u201d Stash de Rola and Tony Sanchez were also given the boot. Les cowboys were allowed to stay.<\/p>\n

By August 26 the occupants of Nellc\u00f4te were pared back to a skeleton staff. With the minions gone, the Rolling Stones buckled down to business.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Plans were drawn up to tour Japan and America in support of the new album, provisionally entitled Tropical Disease. They agreed to try to finish the recording by the end of October.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Anita was pregnant again, however, and highly emotional. The second week in September she summoned June, the PA, with an urgent request. \u201cYou have to help me,\u201d Anita said. \u201cI can\u2019t have this baby. I need an abortion.\u201d<\/p>\n

There were rumours that Anita feared the baby was Mick\u2019s, which might be apparent when it was born. \u201cKeith heard the rumours as well and things got chilly, chillier, between them,\u201d Marshall Chess said. France was a predominantly Catholic country. Anita needed to go somewhere abortion was legal.<\/p>\n

\u201cKeith wants the baby,\u201d Anita told June. \u201cI can\u2019t do it. Can you arrange for me to get a plane to Switzerland?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But June didn\u2019t work for Anita. When she went to the band\u2019s French accountant to obtain money for the plane ticket he insisted that Keith sign off first. Keith \u201cwas furious\u201d, Anita recalled. \u201c\u200a\u2018Buy her a ticket anywhere she wants,\u2019 he told me. \u2018Just don\u2019t buy her a round trip.\u2019\u200a\u201d June purchased the plane ticket four different times. \u201cEach time there was another excuse why Anita didn\u2019t make the flight. It became clear to me that she decided to have the baby.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then on September 21 burglars looted Nellc\u00f4te. Keith and Anita spent the afternoon locked in their bedroom, watching TV. Even Inspector Clouseau could have solved the crime. Everyone knew it was an inside job \u2014 les cowboys were the obvious suspects. They had the run of the place, they were thugs and word had it that Keith and Bobby Keys owed them money.<\/p>\n

\u2018We were in some bad trouble\u2019<\/p>\n

In the aftermath, the villa underwent a complete lockdown. Visitors were no longer welcome. Locks were changed. \u201cThe massive gates were closed,\u201d Anita said, \u201cand big lights [shone] onto the street. We went to maximum security.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Mick had arrived in Paris, where Bianca had given birth to a 6lb baby girl, Jade Sheena Jezebel Jagger. Brimming with pride, the tax exile father stole into England to introduce his parents to their new granddaughter.<\/p>\n

Basic tracks for the new album were nearly complete by early October, but they were mainly raw, bare-bones recordings. Many lacked lyrics. Most of the band were soon on their way to Los Angeles to finish the work there, in studios better equipped to punch in overdubs, layer on the vocals and supply studio musicians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"NINTCHDBPICT001077050363\"Richards and Jagger jam amid speaker boxes inside the villaDominique Tarl\u00e9<\/p>\n

Keith was eager to do his part, but he and Anita were detained in Villefranche. The police had opened an investigation. Informants had supplied information about les cowboys and their sources, as well as the trafficking outside the villa\u2019s gates. A wealth of evidence allegedly linked the Stones and their associates to the movement of drugs in the region and the French state intended to bring charges against everyone associated with Villa Nellc\u00f4te. Keith was facing possible lengthy jail time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in some bad trouble,\u201d Keith admitted. God knows how many go- betweens had their hands in the operation \u2014 les cowboys, Fat Jacques, Tommy Weber, Tony Sanchez, any number of intermediaries from Corsica and Marseille, retainers, villains and drifters. They would have plenty to say.<\/p>\n

Then Rupert Loewenstein, a merchant banker who had masterminded the band\u2019s tax exile in the first place, rode to the rescue. He had French friends in high places: a team of lawyers, cabinet advisers to the prime minister and mayor of Antibes, prefects for the Alpes-Maritimes, any bigwig he could get his hands on. They could not expunge the charges, but they did secure Keith from custody, enabling him to leave France.<\/p>\n

Almost as soon as he and Anita were out of the country, police raided Nellc\u00f4te. They hit the jackpot. The place was awash with heroin, cocaine and other substances, leading to new charges of drug possession and trafficking. A warrant was issued for Keith\u2019s and Anita\u2019s arrest. By that time, however, the couple was out of harm\u2019s reach, in Los Angeles. The Rolling Stones, half a world away, were putting the finishing touches on an album they were now calling Exile on Main St.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u200a Bob Spitz 2026. Extracted from The Rolling Stones (Penguin Michael Joseph \u00a330), published on May 28. To order a copy go to timesbookshop.co.uk<\/a>. Special discount for Times+ members<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The French authorities viewed the arrival of the Rolling Stones in 1971 as one might the invasion of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":949281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[2000,299,36],"class_list":{"0":"post-949280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-france"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116547199452499579","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=949280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/949280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/949281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=949280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=949280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=949280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}