CULTURE
La Vie en Rose All hail Hotel Du Cap-Eden-Roc, queen of the French Riviera
“On the pleasant shore of the French Riviera, about halfway between Marseilles and the Italian border, stands a large, proud, rose-colored hotel,” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald of the Hotel du Cap in his 1934 novel, Tender is the Night. From the moment the Belle Epoque mansion—originally built by the then editor of Le Figaro newspaper, Hippolyte de Villemessant, as a retreat for wornout writers—opened its doors in 1889 as a hotel under the ownership of Antoine Sella, it has been a symbol of French glamour and a magnet for the artists, film stars, politicians, and society figures of the day. Ernest Hemingway visited, as did Rudolph Valentino, Isadora Duncan, Ella Fitzgerald, James Baldwin, the Kennedys, Robert Evans, Taylor and Burton, John and Yoko, Serge and Jane, Mick, Kate, and Cate. Picasso swam in the iconic pool dug into the cliffside, and drew nudes in the hotel guest book; Orson Welles hung out at the waterfront cabana of Hollywood studio executive Darryl Zanuck with film star Jean Howard; the Duke and Duchess of Windsor languished poolside while on honeymoon; François-Henri Pinault and Salma Hayek partied here with Sean “Diddy” Combs and the English socialite Daphne Guinness. Everybody who is anybody has stayed at the du Cap, from the Jazz Age to our digital times. This lavishly illustrated book tells the story of its first 150 years, with never-before-seen photographs of guests and an introduction by Graydon Carter. It’s a fitting tribute to the most seductive hotel of the French Riviera, and arguably, of the world. —heather hodson 46
BARBARA MULLEN AND MARIE-HÉLÈNE ARNAUD, PHOTOGRAPHY BY GEORGES DAMBIER
Hotel Du Cap Eden Roc: A Timeless Legend on the French Riviera by Alexandra Campbell and Graydon Carter (Flammarion, $85)
AVENUE MAGAZINE | JULY—AUGUST 2021
07_08_10CULT-Coffee_Table_Books_FINAL2.indd 46
6/21/21 11:22 AM
