The Château de la Croë is a large detached villa situated in eight hectares of grounds on the Cap d'Antibes peninsula of the Côte d'Azur, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southern France. The classical-style château was designed by architect Armand-Albert Rateau and built in 1927 for Sir Pomeroy Burton, general manager of Associated Newspapers.The Duke and Duchess of Windsor leased the château in May 1938, in addition to their Parisian mansion, after the Duke's abdication as King Edward VIII in 1936.The Duchess of Windsor subsequently renovated the house, leading the author Rebecca West to comment that "There are not many women... who can pick up the keys to a rented house, raddled by long submission to temporary inmates, and make it look as if a family of good taste had been living there for two or three centuries."Winston and Clementine Churchill celebrated their fortieth wedding anniversary with the Windsors at the château in 1948.Among the Windsors' guests were Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire and her husband, the 11th Duke of Devonshire. Deborah Devonshire later recalled that the Duke of Windsor wore full Highland dress at dinner, with a kilt and a dirk, and a Highland piper entertained the dinner guests, which Devonshire thought was "more suited to the misty glens than the Côte d'Azur in July." The Windsors' housekeeper later worked at Chatsworth, home of the Devonshires. The housekeeper told Deborah Devonshire that all the staff employed at the Château de la Croë by the Windsors were blonde haired.