and Nice (30 minutes from the Nice Airport). A favorite of the international Super-Stars and Jet-Setters. Certainly the most expensive hotel on the Riviera, and a legend in its own right.
The elegant building of Hôtel du Cap – constructed in 1870 in the purest Napoléon-III style – was initially baptised « Villa Soleil » (Sunshine Villa) before becoming the legendary Grand Hôtel du Cap in 1889. Sir Gordon-Bennett, eccentric and super-rich owner of the « New York Herald », was one of the first guests, as were a number of crowned heads, Russian princes and their peers from England. Welcomed by Antoine Sella – the young man from Piedmont aged thirty and full of enthusiasm and innovative ideas – the illustrious persons from all over the world were soon seduced by the charm of the establishment.
Numerous were those who found happiness in this « Rediscovered Eden», starting with Rudolf Valentino, Americans of the « Lost Generation» (Gerald and Sarah Murphy, Cole Porter, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Dos Passos), as well as Picasso, Mistinguett, Ernst Jünger… Then came Rita Hayworth, Orson Welles, the Kennedy family, Marlène Dietrich, Erich Maria-Remarque, General De-Gaulle, François Mitterrand, Jacques Chirac, George Bush and many more, which has encouraged the new generations to re-invent carefree pleasure and the joys of the sun.
Closer to our times, Madonna, Sharon Stone, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Bill Cosby, Robert de Niro, Johnny Depp, Catherine Deneuve are keen to return – after the mad evenings of the Cannes Film Festival – to this paradise where everything shines, flowers and sings with the « joie de vivre » so dear to Picasso.
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Note: During the months of June, July, August and September, the hotel requires a minimum stay of 3 nights.
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