Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel review: grande dame gets an epic makeover

Fresh out of a seven-year refurbishment, the Carlton Cannes hotel on the famous Boulevard de la Croisette has reclaimed its fairy tale glamour. With its gleaming Belle Époque façade framed by twin domes, the Carlton is a commanding emblem of ultra-chic French Riviera style, overlooking the sparkling Mediterranean, with its obligatory water-skiers and super yachts.

Now officially known as the “Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel”, and part of IHG Hotels & Resorts’ luxury and lifestyle collection, the property is the group’s first “new era” residence in Europe thanks to a makeover that’s been positively epic, extravagant and exacting in its standards of production, which marries well with its cinematic credentials as an A-list destination during the Cannes Film Festival.

History

It is a celluloid idyll in more ways than one. The Carlton Cannes was also the central location for Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 film “To Catch A Thief”, starring Cary Grant and Grace Kelly. In fact, Grant was a regular guest at the Carlton and liked to sunbathe in private, feet dangling from his balcony. It is also understood that Prince Rainier III of Monaco and Grace Kelly began their romance in room 875 at the Carlton when the film jury held a private reception for celebrities here in April 1955. Through the decades, the hotel has welcomed countless screen legends, movie moguls, royals, dignitaries and political heavyweights, from Franklin D. Roosevelt to Barack Obama.

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After the success of her novel “Bonjour Tristesse”, French writer Françoise Sagan moved into the Carlton to pen “Un Certain Sourire” (A Certain Smile), while Elton John filmed his 1983 music video for “I’m Still Standing” in front of Carlton and on its famous beach front – two very different cultural references that nonetheless hint at the enduring appeal and happy-making pull of this majestic property.

And about those two cupolas: legend has it that they were inspired by the shape of Carolina Otero’s breasts. A Belle Époque beauty better known as “La Belle Otero”, she was a Spanish actress and courtesan who counted King Edward VII, Kaiser Wilhelm II and Czar Nicholas II among her admirers.

For more than 100 years, Carlton Cannes has been “an icon of the Riviera”, said Tom Rowntree, IHG Hotels & Resorts’s vice president of global luxury and lifestyle brands. “It’s perhaps the one hotel in the world which you can recognise from the plane as you fly in.” One of the “most visible changes” has been the restoration of the hotel’s famous inscription, located on the “skyline pinnacle” of the façade. The lettering is back to the 1913 “Carlton Hotel” in its original blue colouring and the “same timeless serif that had adorned it for much of its history”.

The renovation

Cannes-based architect Richard Lavelle enlisted the help of experts from the Compagnons du Devoir, France’s historical artisan guild founded in the Middle Ages, to restore the façade and interior spaces of the Carlton, a listed monument. The hotel’s lobby is especially breathtaking with its newly-raised ceilings, streamlined arches and original Carrara marble floor. Grand marble stucco columns, previously covered in eight layers of white paint, are a standout feature that draw in the light and create a patterned ornamental feature in an otherwise uncluttered space. The original 1913 hexagonal centrepiece staircase, with swirling brass bannisters and newly-applied gold leaf details, provides the perfect Instagram shot, like you’re standing inside a giant jewellery box.

Lavelle also helmed a 20,000 square metre extension, transforming an incongruous central car park into a blossoming peristyle garden courtyard nestled inside the hotel. Home to Cannes’ largest infinity pool, this new green space is filled with an astonishing 22,000 flowers and aromatic plants. Each citrus tree was also personally selected by Lavelle from the Tuscan city of Pistoia, famous for its botanical gardens and nurseries. A brand new subterranean 900 square metre fitness and spa complex – Le C Club – has also been carved into this area which includes a full-size boxing ring and state-of-the-art gym, yoga and Pilates studio.

Designer and architect Tristan Auer, who is known for his “rooted” approach to interiors, has reached back in time to create a modern feel that summons the glamour of the hotel’s golden age, with an artful eye that has shied away from ornamentation and glitz, using different tones, patinas and textual effects instead. “To absorb the Carlton’s personality, I stepped back in time, learnt what guests love, interviewed the staff… I roamed the region for inspiration,” he said.

On his travels, Auer discovered the gardens of the Fondation Maeght, a modern art gallery high in the hills of St Paul de Vence. Inspired by the colours of a eucalyptus leaf, he applied these tones – rose pink, pale green and light grey – to his hotel palette, indulged through his generous use of grey toned marble and romantic pink Murano glass chandeliers in the lobby. This area, along with its connecting Camélia tea lounge, boasts more linear Art Deco-style lights custom made by Auer’s furniture design studio, as well as shimmering golden mosaic panels inspired by fish scales. Bar°58, which opens up into a garden terrace, is a charming nook with avant-garde glass chandeliers and a stratified pink and grey raku ceramic counter made in the local village of Mouans-Sartoux.

As you can tell, Auer is a stickler for detail and there are plenty of special touches. For example, the rust coloured powder encased under the glass of the hotel’s curving reception desk is tennis court clay, the same used at Roland Garros and famously produced for decades in the nearby village of Vallauris, which is known for its faience. In 1926, the material was used on sporting grounds for the first time in history at the Carlton’s old tennis courts.

Rooms and suites

The 332-key hotel includes 72 rooms with a sea view plus 37 apartment-style residences. On the sixth floor is the Alfred Hitchcock Suite, where the famous kiss scene between Grace Kelly and Cary Grant took place. The movie theme continues on floor seven with the Grace Kelly Suite, the Cary Grant Suite and the Kirk Douglas Suite completing a trifecta of Hollywood tributes.

Visually and conceptually, Auer wanted the ground floor to evoke a “cinematic flow” from entrance to restaurant to bar and garden, and he’s succeeded in achieving this storytelling element within a design that atmospherically combines (in movie speak) romantic fantasy with a splash of period drama and a pinch of Wes Anderson whimsy.

Rooms, by contrast, are minimalist in a cool and seductive way – more nouvelle vague than rom-com if you like – dressed in a fresh palette dominated by creams and whites with thoughtful touches including French cane headboards and luxury oatmeal-coloured carpets with a clay-coloured geometric pattern. Each furniture piece was designed by the Auer atelier – everything from the bespoke mouth-blown “Camou” suspension lamps in mottled brown/yellow glass to the curving “Blancs Manteaux” sofas which look like giant seashells, soft and enveloping after a day in the sun.

Eating and drinking

Lunching at the Carlton Beach Club is a chic affair. Waiting staff in whiter-than-white “plagistes” outfits deftly carry iced cocktails (there are five kinds of spritzes) on round trays. And the menu also features Mediterranean favourites like fritto misto, fresh tuna tartare, steamed artichoke hearts with vinaigrette and fresh octopus salad.

The Riviera restaurant, which has indoor and outdoor seating thanks to a large sea view terrace, is helmed by chef Laurent Bunel, whose menu follows a Mediterranean brasserie cooking style that’s big on simple, punchy and locally sourced ingredients. The catch of the day may come “en cocotte”, steaming in a fragrant wine-based jus with a rainbow assortment of market veg or dressed in a classic beurre sauce with sweet clams and garden pea mousseline. Five beef dishes mean business – fillet, chuck and entrecôte cuts range from 200g to 350g – and are served on large slate boards. The best part is the decadent potato menu which counts seven different dishes. It’s impossible to pick just one, but if you have to, it must be the heavenly truffle mash.

A third restaurant, Rüya, has a younger, buzzier ambience, specialising in modern cuisine from the Anatolian Peninsula. If the smell of freshly baked breads (there’s a menu for these, too) isn’t enough to lure you, the sharing dishes – plenty of moorish fried squid, melty aubergine, salty goat’s curd – will do the trick.

There’s one secret place to note, according to Rowntree, and it sounds like the Cannes version of “The Swing”, a painting by French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard. But for this one it’s best to wear some stylish trunks or a bikini. A swing seat at the end of the iconic pontoon comes with a sunrise and sundown cocktail menu curated especially to be enjoyed while swinging in the chair.

A playful feature like this sums up the ethos of this attentive hotel. As Cary Grant once said: “It takes 500 small details to add up to one favourable impression.” At the Cannes Carlton, there are thousands of touches that make for a blockbuster memory bank.

Alexandra Zagalsky was a guest of Carlton Cannes, a Regent Hotel. Rates start from €500 (approx £428) per room per night; ihg.com/regent

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