Hôtel du Cap

The Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc or simply Hôtel du Cap is a resort hotel in Antibes on the French Riviera. Opened in 1870 as a private mansion under the name Villa Soleil, it became a hotel in 1889.^[1]

History

The founder of France's Le Figaro newspaper, Hippolyte de Villemessant, built the Villa Soleil in 1869 for writers seeking inspiration. In 1887, Italian hotelier Antoine Sella bought the property, and opened the Grand Hôtel du Cap in 1889.

In 1914, the Eden Roc pavilion (event space) was built 400 yards away from the main hotel. Gerald and Sara Murphy, a young American couple who had expatriated to France in the 1920s, once rented the hotel for an entire summer, a unique event for the era as the French Riviera was not a summer destination at the time, but a winter escape for the wealthy. With the Murphys came many writers and artists of the Lost Generation, including F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Fitzgerald immortalized it as the Hôtel des Etrangers in Tender Is the Night. Marc Chagall made sketches in one of the shady beachside cabanas after their construction in the 1960s.^[2]

In 1931, when Antoine (Antonio) Sella died, the running of the hotel passed to his son André (Andrea) who developed the hotel to a new level. The Kennedy family summered here in 1938 when John F. Kennedy was 21 years old.^[3] Guests included Marlene Dietrich, Orson Welles, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Winston Churchill and Charles De Gaulle.^[3] Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton conducted an affair and honeymooned there.^[4] The hotel has traditionally been a particular favourite of film stars, especially during the annual Cannes Film Festival.^[5]

In 1964, Rudolf August Oetker, a German industrialist, and his wife Maja von Malaisé first spotted the mansion while sailing on the Côte d'Azur in 1964; they bought the hotel five years later after the death of André Sella.^[2]^[6]

In 1985, some scenes in the film, Under the Cherry Moon, starring and directed by Prince, were filmed at the hotel. In one of the more notable scenes, Prince and co-star Kristin Scott Thomas danced on the picturesque deck at the Eden Roc restaurant to Prince's musical ballad Alexa de Paris, as they bantered wittily toward an impending courtship in the film.

For many years the hotel did not accept credit cards. Only cash was accepted, with most guests wiring money ahead of their stay. In 2006, this policy was dropped.^[7] In 2012, TVs were installed.^[7] In 2013, guest's hand-drawn selfies included Conan O’Brien, Johnny Depp and Pelé.^[8]

In May 2011, the Hôtel du Cap-Eden Roc was hosting, on its principal driveway to the sea, the Croisière 2011–2012 Collection of the Chanel couture house. It also was the scene for designer Karl Lagerfeld's 2011 short-film The Tale of a Fairy,^[9] featuring actors and models including Freja Beha, Bianca Balti, Amanda Harlech, Anna Mouglalis, Kristen McMenamy, Baptiste Giabiconi, Sébastien Jondeau [fr], and Mark Vanderloo.^[10]^[11]

For about twenty years, amfAR, a nonprofit devoted to AIDS research, has held a charity auction at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc as part of its annual Cinema Against AIDS event at the Cannes Film Festival.^[12]

Amenities

The property is composed of 5 buildings:

Hôtel du Cap

117-suite hotel, former Villa Soleil

Eden-Roc

pavilion

Les 2 Fontaines (Les Deux Fontaines)

a two-storey 32-room residence

Villa Eleana^[13]

private villa in front of the property^[14]

Villa Les Cèdres^[15]

private villa in the middle of the park^[16]

The main hotel, a Napoleon III château, is located on the southern tip of the Cap d'Antibes. It houses 117 suites.^[3] Owner Maja Oetker decorates the rooms and suites.^[2]

The hotel has 6 bars,^[17] and 3 restaurants,^[17] including the Michelin 1-star Louroc Restaurant^[18]

Accolades

The Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc is considered one of the finest hotels in the world. In 2023 it was listed by multiple sources as one of the top 50 hotels in the world ^[19] ^[20] and in 2024 was placed on the Conde Nast gold list.^[21]