Villa Tempe a paia, Modern architecture villa in Menton, France.

Villa Tempe a Pailla is a modernist house built by Eileen Gray on the heights of Menton, above the Route de Castellar. It stands on a base of natural stone, with a white rendered upper floor and a narrow band of windows separating the two. The living room and solarium face south, the bedrooms east and the kitchen north; a two-flight concrete stair links the small terrace to the garden.

Eileen Gray bought the hillside plot on the route de Castellar in 1926, adding a lemon grove across the road and a small vineyard in 1932. She built the villa in 1934 as a house for reflection and work, distinct from E-1027. Pillaged in 1944, it was restored by Gray by 1953; Graham Sutherland bought it in 1954, and it was listed as a monument historique on 22 January 1990.

The name comes from a Menton saying, "Tempe a paia, u nespoure mahuran" — time and straw ripen the medlars. The house was meant for reflection and work, unlike E-1027 at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, which Gray devoted to relaxation. Neighbours called the ship-like house "the submarine".

The villa stands at 187 route de Castellar, on the hills above Menton's town centre, on the road toward Castellar. Access is from the garden via an outside staircase and the terrace, not from the street level. The west facade borders a mule track, and the living room and solarium face south toward the Alps panorama.

Neighbours nicknamed the house "the submarine" because, like Villa E-1027, it recalls the shape of a ship. A circular opening in the bedroom ceiling, closed by a disc worked mechanically from the bed, lets the sleeper vary the light. A memorial plaque on the wall honours the painter Graham Sutherland, who bought the villa in 1955 and lived there until his death in 1980.