The building has been here since 1911. The twin domes on La Croisette have been the most recognisable silhouette on the French Riviera for over a century. This is not a hotel we discovered. It is a hotel we returned to — or rather, continued a relationship with that began before either of us was born. Our great-grandparents came here. Our grandparents came here. When Nouri and I went in July 2024, we were not visiting a hotel. We were continuing something.
This is not a hotel we discovered. It is a hotel we returned to — a relationship that began before either of us was born. Our great-grandparents came here. Our grandparents came here.
The renovation that brought the Carlton back in March 2023 was the work of two people who understood the weight of what they were touching. Interior designer Tristan Auer — known for his polyhedral aesthetics and work with heritage buildings and Cartier — and restoration architect Richard Lavelle, who has spent a career understanding what historic structures require when they are being given back to themselves rather than replaced. 750 people and 450 companies worked on it. The chandeliers were restored by the same craftspeople who worked on the Palace of Versailles. Paint was stripped from the enormous marble columns to reveal what had been covered for decades. Every decision was made in service of what the building is — not what a contemporary renovation might want it to become.
The result is a hotel that earns every adjective applied to it. 332 rooms, 72 of which have a sea view — request one without hesitation, the view of La Croisette from above is the view that made Cannes what it is. The largest hotel infinity pool on the Riviera, enclosed in a garden landscaped with 22,000 plants, handcrafted cabanas, peristyle alcoves. Tristan Auer's interiors take their inspiration from the changing colours of the Mediterranean coastline and the movement of the sea breeze — which sounds like marketing language until you are standing in the room and it simply reads as true.
This is a generational property in the truest sense of the word — not in the way the phrase gets applied to anything expensive, but in the way that means a family has a relationship with a place across time that makes each visit feel like a continuation rather than a beginning. Grace Kelly met Prince Rainier here during the 1955 Film Festival. Hitchcock stayed here. Picasso stayed here. Onassis. This is the company the building keeps and has kept for over a century. We are happy to be the latest in a long line of people who found it exactly as it should be.
We are not comparing it to the Hôtel du Cap — a different tier entirely at a different price entirely, and a hotel that makes its own entirely justified argument. The Carlton is not that. The Carlton is the finest accessible luxury palace hotel on the Côte d'Azur. It is the jewel of La Croisette. We went. It did not disappoint. That is the entire review.