The highly secured residence is decidedly more castle than the average private home, with a cobblestone driveway and an elaborate labyrinth of stone walls, arches, iron gates and carefully clipped hedges surrounding the entrance. There’s enough wood to populate a forest in the grand foyer, which is but a small taste of the baronial opulence to come: Yards and yards of shiny dark hardwood floors, more archways than a medieval monastery and wrought iron railings that swirl around the curving staircases like the chicanes at Le Mans.
In addition to the formal living room, with its giant carved stone fireplace that looks like it could have been ripped out of a French chateau, there are several other less formal but no less extravagant lounges, one anchored by a huge fireplace and another wrapped in lustrous wood paneling with French doors to the gardens.
With a fluttering of faux French Renaissance frills, the wallpapered dining room has ornate chairs covered in rose velvet and a Rococo chandelier that matches a couple of wall sconces. Gently bent wood beams line the coved ceiling in the colossal double-island gourmet kitchen that basks in banks of dark wood cabinets, some with leaded glass fronts. A home theater with tiered seating in chunky leather recliners is one of the few rooms in the house that isn’t dripping with Old World-inspired opulence.
