Alfred Théodore Courmes acquired the land of the current Domaine du Rayol in 1909 to establish his retirement residence. He had a large patrician villa of heterogeneous architecture built on a promontory overlooking the Baie du Figuier to the west of his estate. His wife, finding the property unhospitable asked, in 1922, the architect of the estate, Guillaume Tronchet, to build a second simpler villa at the other end of the estate on the eastern promontory. Called Le Rayolet, it became the residence of the Courmes couple from 1925.