It opened in 1908 on the outermost tip of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat and in 2011 became the Riviera's first palace hotel. About the house with Eiffel's rotunda, the pool from 1939 and the swimming instructor who taught Picasso to swim.
In this story · 6 sections
Anyone driving south through Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat will eventually arrive at a wrought-iron gate. Behind it, at the end of a drive lined with flowering shrubs, stands a long white façade with a low rotunda at its centre. The Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat has stood here since 1908, on the very tip of the peninsula, with the sea on three sides.
Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, A Four Seasons Hotel
Hotel · Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
© OpenStreetMap contributors · OpenFreeMap
- Address
- 71 boulevard du Général de Gaulle, 06230 Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
The Riviera's first palace hotel, with Eiffel's rotunda, Club Dauphin and the restaurant Le Cap.
01The king's land and a coachman's son
Around 1900, Cap-Ferrat was mostly cliffs and dense maquis. According to Wikipedia, Leopold II of Belgium bought up the peninsula's only forest and much of the surrounding land, bit by bit. Shortly before 1900, the king sold part of it to a company founded by a Mr Péretmère, the son of a coachman from northern France, and six and a half hectares were set aside for a hotel.
The hotel opened in January 1908, according to Four Seasons' fact sheet. It was built with two wings at an open angle to each other and a rotunda in the middle, which according to Four Seasons was designed by Gustave Eiffel. Shortly afterwards, the building was bought by a widow, Madame Ferras, grandmother of the violinist Christian Ferras.
02From winter palace to summer hotel
During the First World War, the hotel became a hospital. In 1922, two hoteliers, Henri Dehouve and André Voyenne, took over the running of the hotel. They stayed for more than twenty years, and the street leading to the hotel today bears their name.
Until the 1930s, the Riviera was a winter resort for aristocrats and royalty from England and Russia. Among those who stayed on Cap-Ferrat, Wikipedia mentions Queen Victoria's court, Princess Louise, the Duke of Connaught and President Paul Deschanel. The summer season came about by chance. In the summer of 1933, the German director G. W. Pabst wanted to film Don Quixote with Feodor Chaliapin in the lead role. He could not afford to travel to Spain and chose Cap-Ferrat's landscape instead. The hotel was closed but accommodated the film crew, and many of them returned the following year on their own.
The new summer visitors wanted to swim. The rocks made it difficult to reach the water, so a cove was blasted out of the rock. According to the French Wikipedia, a saltwater pool of Olympic dimensions, 33.33 metres long, was also built. The facility was named Sun Beach and was inaugurated in early April 1939.
03The war, the mines and the lighthouse
A few weeks after the outbreak of war, the hotel was closed again. On 5 March 1944, the entire peninsula was evacuated ahead of a feared Allied landing, and the ground was mined. The residents were given a few hours to pack. The lighthouse on the headland was destroyed in an explosion, but the hotel and the pool survived unscathed.
After the war, the guests returned. Wikipedia mentions Somerset Maugham, Charlie Chaplin, Winston Churchill and Aristotle Onassis. The pool also gained a legend of its own: the swimming instructor Pierre Gruneberg, who, according to Wikipedia, taught Picasso to swim and taught both Paul McCartney's and Frank Sinatra's children in the heated saltwater pool.
04New owners and the 2011 palace distinction
During the second half of the 20th century, the hotel changed owners several times. Under a Japanese owner, it was known for a time as Bel Air Cap-Ferrat. In 2007, it was bought by Len Blavatnik, according to the French Wikipedia. For two winters in a row, 2007–2008 and 2008–2009, the building was extended while it was closed. The architect Luc Svetchine designed a new wing with suites that have their own pools, Pierre-Yves Rochon did the interiors, and the landscape architect Jean Mus the park.
In May 2011, the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat became one of the first eight hotels in France, and the first on the Côte d'Azur, to receive the new "palace" distinction. In May 2015, Four Seasons took over the management, and the hotel has since been named Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, A Four Seasons Hotel. In 2024, it was awarded three keys, the highest level, in the Guide Michelin's new hotel rating system.
05Rooms, restaurants and Club Dauphin
According to Four Seasons, the hotel has 75 rooms and suites – 48 rooms, 24 suites and 3 villas – set in seven hectares of grounds. Villa Rose-Pierre, the largest, measures 550 square metres according to the Guide Michelin. A funicular takes guests from the hotel down to Club Dauphin by the water, where the saltwater pool sits above the cliffs with sun terraces and private cabanas.
Le Cap is the hotel's gastronomic restaurant, with one star in the Guide Michelin, and serves dinner only. La Véranda serves Mediterranean food with an Italian touch throughout the day beneath the Aleppo pines, and lunch is served by the pool at Club Dauphin. The wine cellar is renowned for its Château d'Yquem, with vintages that, according to Wikipedia, date back to 1854. In 2024, the hotel's pastry chef Pierre-Jean Quinonero was named pâtissier of the year.
06Around the hotel on Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat
The hotel is on boulevard du Général de Gaulle, and Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild is on the same peninsula – see our guide to Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat in a day. More destinations along the coast can be found among our Riviera guides on metromode.co.
