PINE FOREST

The Residence des Pins is the traditional home of the French ambassadors. It has been welcoming the French representative again since 1998. This splendid Ottoman-style building, intended in 1917 to become a casino, was requisitioned as a military hospital before being chosen in 1920 as the residence of the high commissioner by General Gouraud. If this military man was satisfied with a cot, this was not the case for his successors. The premises had to be adapted to accommodate the families of the high commissioners, and then those of the French ambassadors.