Inside the Majestic Hôtel Where Movie Stars Have Slept for More Than 60 Years
The official partner hotel of Cannes is located steps away from Le Palais des Festivals.
I’m lounging by a pool as cerulean as the Côte d’Azur to my back. Although a stone’s throw away, the sea is not quite visible, thanks to the palm trees and Mediterranean shrubs that promise seclusion—a necessary precaution if, unlike me, you are one of the many film stars that will call Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic a temporary home come May. My eyes gaze up at the grand, Art Deco façade, then back down at the red awning of Fouquet’s. There, at the veranda, a couple engages in a passionate makeout at breakfast. It’s clearly a little raunchy in these parts, but Cannes has never pretended to be de rigueur. For examples, consider Simone Silva posing topless, the cast of La Merditude des Choses bicycling naked, and Sacha Baron Cohen sporting a lime green mankini.
The hotel, which faces the famous steps of Le Palais des Festivals et des Congrès on the storied Boulevard de la Croisette, is a long-standing partner of the Cannes Film Festival. I make a game out of walking down the corridors lined with black-and-white portraits of celebrity guests past—Catherine Deneuve, Robert De Niro, George Clooney, to name a few—testing out which ones I recognize. I picture how, next month, during the 77th Festival de Cannes, Palme d’Or nominees will grace the gilded lobby, suitcases in tow, ready to accept international acclaim.
Built in 1926, Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic is the creation of entrepreneur Henri Ruhl, who combined the Beau Rivage hotel and the adjacent property of the Villa des Enfants. He entrusted Théo Petit, the architect behind the famous Hotel Le Normandy in Deauville, to master the design. Before Ruhl could really even spend time in his new investment property, it was quickly snatched by François André, founder of the Barriere group and the first official sponsor of the Cannes Film Festival.
The Cannes Film Festival, originally called the International Film Festival, dates back to 1939. After attending the Venice Film Festival—then called the Venice Mostra—French diplomat Philippe Erlanger wasn’t too happy with the way the jury seemed to be swayed by Nazi propaganda. He thought of setting up his own festival in France, one that could be devoid of political influence. The French government signed on, choosing the “Pearl of the Riviera” as the setting that would rival sophisticated Venice. But it was unlucky timing: The day the festival was to be inaugurated, Germany invaded Poland.
It wasn’t until 1946 that the International Film Festival took place for the first time, and in 1955, the Palme d’Or award was founded. Since the festival’s inception, Le Majestic has always been at the heart of the action. During the month of May, the hotel staff doubles from 350 employees to 700. Rooms are fully booked several months in advance, and more than 50 of them are transformed into temporary office spaces. The hotel’s favorite story has to do with a certain American actor, who turned up at the last minute in 1983. Lucien Barrière, son of André, made room in otherwise tight quarters by offering up his private apartment at the hotel to none other than Paul Newman. Ask the hotel staff and they’ll be able to share countless other stories about celebrities that had made a lasting impression on them, from Jeff Goldblum and Morgan Freeman, to Gong Li and Sharon Stone.
I take a tour of Le Majestic’s crème de la crème, the glamorous suites that get rented out by fashion houses to dress their selected movie stars before the festival. Most notable is the Christian Dior Suite, designed in collaboration with Nathalie Ryan, the accredited interior decorator of the French couturier. Upon walking through a sliding door that reads “Dior,” I’m greeted by a grand dining room that evokes an haute-couture Parisian boutique. Next is the Mélodie Suite, a room inspired by the 1963 French film, Mélodie En Sous Sol (Any Number Can Win). The movie was partially filmed in this very hotel, and a few stills, marked by the handsome faces of Jean Gabin and Alain Delon, are plastered along the walls. This May, Kering (Gucci, Balenciaga, Yves Saint Laurent) will occupy the Majestic Penthouse, whose half-moon window overlooks the blue of the ocean and the hullabaloo of the Palais des Festivals.
But the luxury hotel also flourishes in the off-season. Le Majestic boasts its own version of Fouquet’s, the famed 1899 Parisian brasserie, where Michèle Morgan met Gabin for the first time, and where New Wave film directors like François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and Claude Chabrol shared ideas. The casino-like Bar Fouquet’s Cannes features a cocktail program created by Emanuele Balestra, who infuses his drinks with a signature, edible perfume line. The plants used to create such aromatic concoctions—from rose geranium and basil to pineapple sage and fennel flowers—are all grown on Le Majestic’s rooftop, alongside bee hives that are responsible for the hotel’s honey.
Beyond the gastronomic offerings, there’s a private beach club attached, La Plage Barrière Le Majestic, where you can sprawl out on a sun lounger or engage in your water sport of choice: parasailing, water skiing, or tubing. The Diane Barrière Spa features products from cult skincare brand Biologique Recherche, all of which are incorporated into red-carpet-ready skin and body treatments. And, of course, there’s a private movie theater, Cinémathèque Diane, decorated with dreamy constellations and the names of stars who have made the Cannes Film Festival what it is today.
I can certainly feel a sense of absence in pre-festival Cannes, a city that’s practically built upon spectacle. There are traces of the festival everywhere, from photos of French actresses on construction sites to billboards advertising this year’s event. But it’s a charged kind of absence, one that makes you feel like some Chanel-clad starlet might wander into Fouquet’s at any moment.