Cap-Eden-Roc, the secret hotel…
The Cap-Eden-Roc hotel, which celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2020, serves as an ultra-private residence for the stars of the Cannes Festival. Immersion in the most VIP address of the French Riviera.
It is at the Cap-Eden-Roc hotel, located at the tip of the Cap d’Antibes, that the biggest movie stars take up residence during the Cannes Film Festival. With its nine hectares of gardens, this five-star palace has just inspired the French house of Dior to design a perfume.
“We receive many loyal guests who come from generation to generation. They are here like in a family home and the slightest transformation is a tear for them. So, as soon as we renovate, we consult them and make sure that everything changes without changing anything!” says Philippe Perd, president and CEO of the Cap-Eden-Roc hotel.
In the past, this mythical hotel was the residence of many celebrities and icons of their time. It was in the Hotel Cap-Eden-Roc that Francis Scott Fitzgerald wrote the best-selling novel Tender is the Night, published in 1924.
And the celebrities who have stayed there are counted in the thousands: Picasso, Hemingway, Rudolf Valentino, Kirk Douglas, Marlene Dietrich and the photographer Slim Aarons. All of them have one day rested in this luxurious haven of peace on the French Riviera.
In the kitchen, it is the famous starred chef Eric Fréchon, accompanied by Sébastien Broda, who oversees Le Louroc. The starred restaurant offers typically Mediterranean menus. “It’s a restaurant that cultivates its treasures between a hardware store and supermarkets,” says Eric Fréchon.
“At the restaurant, we don’t take cheese anymore. With Sébastien, we took the gamble of bringing this ritual up to date. And it works: most customers order the tray,” he adds.
The secret hotel of the Cannes Film Festival is also the place of many eccentric events, which still amuse its director, Philippe Perd, who is delighted with the many anecdotes that have populated his life at the Cap-Eden-Roc Hotel.
“During a party given during the Festival, we saw a man in a tuxedo with a glass of champagne in his hand come out of the pool. He said he had fallen in the water, but we knew he had come swimming in that outfit to try to join the party without being invited,” he says.
The bartender Christophe Lencioni, for his part, still remembers his meeting with the famous actor Bruce Willis: “We were vacuuming in shirt arms and I was afraid that it would disturb him. But it didn’t! He told us that we had to continue our work, that he just wanted to be there with us. He is a wonderful man,” he says.
The Cap-Eden-Roc hotel has spacious rooms and suites, but not only. The establishment also offers luxurious private villas, including the villa Saint-Anne, very popular with celebrities. The place with its warm atmosphere was once the home of the owner of the palace.
Read also > CANNES: REBIRTH OF THE MYTHICAL PALM BEACH
Featured photo : © Press
