On the edge of our coasts, in our mountains and in our cities, how many grand hotels of the last centuries have been closed? Like ghosts who haunt their era with their elegant silhouette, their facades remind us of the world of yesterday, like in Marseille, those of the old Grand Hotel Noailles-Métropole, on the Canebière, which struck the hours from 1865 to 1979 light from the Marseille city. These palaces have carried away in their memories a cosmopolitan clientele, disappeared with the use that we no longer make of this pretty word, preferring to substitute the qualifier "foreigners", as if they were also an art to live worn out. Proust describes this cosmopolitanism of large hotels wonderfully. Staying at Alpenrose in Sils-Maria, in Les Plaisirs et les Jours , he writes:"The dream of German sounds died there in the voluptuousness of Italian syllables" .
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The rich clientele of the first railways is at the origin of large palaces. We went down there, accompanied by his servants and sometimes even preceded by his own furniture. Installed at the Grand Hotel in Grasse, Queen Victoria, in addition to her doctor and her treasurer, disembarked "... with six chambermaids, a French chef, his lieutenants and his cooks, a coachman and half a dozen servants ..." , says the historian Cyrille Boulay, author of Royal Holidays (Assouline Editions). In high society, the stay could last up to six months. We claimed it ... Without fear of a tax adjustment.
In Le Figaro , a section entitled "The world and the city" even listed every day the arrivals and departures of its readers - which would be blessed bread for burglars today. In the years 1960-1970, a number of palaces in France disappeared. Those from the Côte d'Azur, whose surnames have remained unchanged for a century, have held up better than anywhere else. The Negresco, the Grand Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, the Majestic and the Cap-Eden-Roc, have pegged at the stone of their building, an art of living that endures.
The Cap-Eden-Roc, the first
The customers of Cap-Eden-Roc have one of the highest loyalty rates in the French hotel industry. @Bruno Ehrs Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc A timeless Legend Flammarion 2020
When we arrive today at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, on the Cap d'Antibes, nature, the sea and buildings form a magical combination over which there is perfect harmony. The large alley lined with pines and palm trees, which leads from the historic building, Cape Town, located at the top, to the Eden-Roc pavilion, an addition to the seaside in the 1930s, is not only a passage. It is safe conduct to a kind of hotel paradise, scented with Mediterranean essences, with the final aim of the Chagallian blue of the waves carried to the sky. An exceptional geographical situation, which had not escaped Hippolyte de Villemessant.
The man who bought in 1854 Le Figaro , a small satirical weekly and made it a daily information newspaper in 1866, had another project: to offer writers and artists a holiday conducive to revive, far from city stress (already!) , their creative fiber. Project unveiled to Le Figaro readers in 1867. The Beau-Soleil villa, the foundation stone of which will be laid a year later, will eventually become the Grand Hôtel du Cap, inaugurated on February 26, 1870, a hundred and fifty years ago, in the twinkle diamond-bearing Russian aristocrats. The building, a Haussmannian of the seas, dear to the resorts of the Second Empire, has changed little in appearance.
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Last of the three owners who have succeeded each other in a century and a half, the Oetker family, at the head of the homonymous world agrifood group, acquired it in 1969. Before it: the Sella family, associated with the “Fitzgeraldian” years of Cap-Eden-Roc, with its procession of celebrities, Picasso, Hemingway, Kennedy, Niarchos, Windsor… Maintained in excellence, without ever lowering guard, the hotel (115 rooms and 3 villas) has yielded nothing on the codes of elegance, becoming one of the world references of great French chic.
Served by the same staff for years, "the artisans of paradise", as their general manager, Philippe Perd prefers to call them, customers have one of the highest loyalty rates in the French hotel industry: " 65% of our customers return at least once every 5 years, and 35% each year, " assures Philippe Perd, before emphasizing that " the Sella families and the Oetker have made the Cap Eden Roc. Living with the same philosophy, they never transformed the hotel into a commercial establishment, considering it as a great lady to whom we owe respect. ” The secret of its extraordinary longevity.
Cap-Eden-Roc, 67-165, boulevard J.-F.-Kennedy, Antibes. Phone: 04 93 61 39 01.
The discreet Grand Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat
The swimming pool of the Grand Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat is a legendary pool where the children of Charlie Chaplin, among others, learned to swim. Cap Ferrat
A few tens of kilometers further, this same historic dimension inspires the Grand Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat. Since 1908, its name has appeared in blue letters on the pediment of an immobile facade, a jewel of 74 rooms and suites, with discreet luxury and prodigious views over an infinite sea horizon. The hotel, stamped Four Seasons, adorns one end of Cap Ferrat, where the villas of legend, La Léopolda, Santo Sospir, Ephrussi de Rothschild, float in a sea of eucalyptus and bougainvilleas… More than fifty professions, from the carpenter to the pool designer, from the butler to the valet, watch over the smooth running of this address nestled in the most beautiful hotel garden on the Riviera (7 ha). Its swimming pool, the Club Dauphin, located on the seafront since 1939, which can be reached by a private funicular, is a legendary pool where the children of Charlie Chaplin, in particular, learned to swim.
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Despite more than a dozen successive owners (the current one is Sir Leonard Blavatnik), the hotel maintains excellence: “Listening is our heritage. Our staff (350 people, note) has an extraordinary ability to hear what our customers want, without ever straying from the hotel's original codes , ” explains its young director, François-Régis Simon. Under Aleppo pines, a natural parasol, at the feet of a rotunda signed Gustave Eiffel, the chef Yoric Tièche, a Michelin macaron, operates discreetly, without fuss, concentrated on Mediterranean flavors that he masters to perfection . On the way to a second star, this antistar chef fully contributes to the success of the palace. "If you fail on the gastronomic part, there will be a piece missing from the puzzle," insists François-Régis Simon.
With three quarters of foreign customers, the Grand Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, like that of Cap-Eden-Roc, reserves its art of living for a few elected officials… Due to high prices and a reduced number of rooms. "I know we live in a bubble ..." , concedes his director, aware that perhaps inaccessibility inspires dreams as much as envy.
Grand Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, 71, boulevard du Général-de-Gaulle, Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat. Phone: 04 93 76 50 50.
The Negresco in Majesty
The Negresco houses the largest art collection of a luxury hotel in France. ClaesBech-Poulsen
Driving travelers through hotel corridors to the gates of reverie ... This is what the Negresco teams in Nice, on the Promenade des Anglais, are trying to achieve, by offering them the unique treasure of 6,000 works, the most large art collection of a luxury hotel in France. A nugget brought together by Jeanne Augier, from 1957, where her family acquired the establishment, in 2019, the year of her disappearance.
In a stack, sometimes a little excessive and messy, the Hyacinthe Rigauds, Nicolas de Largillière, Nikki de Saint Phalle or Vasarely tell the history of art in France until today. The fate and personality of the person whom her employees called "Madame" , a greeting to which she replied with "My little one" , eclipses the origin of the hotel built in 1913 by the Romanian Henri Negrescu and raised by Niermans, the architect of the Moulin-Rouge, what everyone seems to have forgotten.
Recognized by the State as a living heritage company (EPV), a rarity, the hotel has its own permanent craftsmen, including two upholsterers, companions of duty, to whom we owe the renovation of the rooms, including the suite dedicated to Mademoiselle Chanel, inaugurated this summer. "We are doomed to the exceptional," said Lionel Servant, the new director, from the Barrière group, with a half smile. "When I was appointed, congratulations came to me from around the world, I became aware of the reputation of our establishment on the planet."
"You don't leave the Negresco when you have the chance to work there , " confides a member of staff to whom management instills "the desire to please the customer, the person who knows the hotel best" . Three quarters of the 128 rooms have been renovated, a considerable effort when you know that the average cost of the works would be around 100,000 euros for each. Because the Negresco, with walls lined with celebrities who have crossed its threshold, snorts for new things. "The DJs at the bar have replaced the violins at the ball," we rejoice. La Rotonde, led by Michelin-starred chef Virginie Basselot (a Michelin badge for the gastronomic Chantecler, from the hotel) in the perfect service of rare accuracy, has had a facelift. The place has a digital ceiling which projects, in the evening, a starry sky, pierced by shooting stars. Amazing effect! Its director plans to supply his two restaurants with a new green vegetable garden, somewhere in Nice. A trendy choice. Because nothing better, basically, to stay in the race, than to be placed in the direction of the wind ...
Le Negresco, 37, promenade des Anglais, Nice. Phone: 04 93 16 64 00.
As a family at the Majestic
The second symmetrical wing which gives the Majestic its beautiful look was added in 2010. pascal pronnier
Not giving in to falling asleep is also the obsession with the Majestic in Cannes, built in the years 1925-1930 by Théo Petit, the architect of the Normandy in Deauville. It can count on the know-how of the Barrière group, its owner. François André, Lucien Barrière's uncle, acquired it in 1952. It did not always have the same beautiful look that two symmetrical wings give it today. The one closest to the Palais des Festivals was added in 2010 by Dominique Desseigne, the current president of the group, successfully transplanting it so well that no one imagines its novelty. Because this same Barrière family has presided over its destinies for four generations. "This is an opportunity in long-term decision-making ," explains its managing director, Pierre-Louis Renou. We don't dress the bride to sell her better. In the dictate of fashion, or short-term profitability, the family imposes its vision of the future. ”
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Hotel of stars, on which blows a wind of joie de vivre, music bar, young clientele, festive atmosphere, it has made the family its privileged target. "There are customers who have frequented the Majestic for several generations and who like to find their butler or housekeeper there from year to year." The Majestic, which has the most rooms with a sea view of the whole Croisette (280 out of 350), would have invested 150 million euros in the last ten years in buildings to remain in excellence. "Each generation will have made its contribution to the building, right up to Alexandre (son of Diane and Dominique Desseigne-Barrière), whose work on digitalisation and new technologies is essential for tomorrow," notes Pierre-Louis Renou. And ideas to seduce the youngest are not lacking.
Last find: a VIP academy to catch up in July and August, with teachers from National Education, the school program heckled by the Covid-19 crisis and a cinema studio integrated into the hotel, with editing benches, to allow the youngest to leave with the film of their vacation. Clever, the Majestic understands that an “envy of a palace” is born early. A daring bet on a Proust madeleine which would draw its flavors at the private beach or in the evening at Bisous Bisous, its very select night club, " success story" of the Riviera. So many places to make souvenirs and… future customers.
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But at the Majestic as elsewhere, the large hotels are witnessing the emergence of a new clientele which favors short stays and "experiences", less sensitive to what fascinated their elders. "We sometimes have to fight to impose a long-sleeved shirt on the men who frequent our restaurant, " confides the concierge of one of them, admitting to having given up the fight of the jacket and wearing the tie. Not enough, however, to endanger the sustainability of the palaces. The man with the golden key notes for the example: "If we can regret not going to the opera in a tuxedo, we always hear the same music ..."
The Majestic Cannes, boulevard de la Croisette, Cannes. Phone: 04 92 98 77 00.
Large hotels remain discreet about the pricing of their rooms. If the call prices start around 300 euros, the suite prices can soar up to 40,000 euros per night.