It’s no coincidence that names such as Bristol and Ritz crop up time and again when it comes to luxury hotels
When Cary Grant strode out of the Mediterranean in his tartan swimming trunks to settle in the sands near Grace Kelly, he would probably not have imagined that the twin-domed façade that towered over them would, by the 21st century, have become what is often said to be the most photographed hotel in the world. In part, of course, it was his doing.
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1955 film To Catch a Thief, in which Grant starred, put the Carlton Cannes on the big screen, lingering lovingly over its interiors and making its neo-classical, Belle-Époque façade eminently recognisable.
The hotel re-opened earlier this year for the next chapter in its storied life; still part of the IHG Hotels & Resorts group and now rebranded as A Regent Hotel, having been impressively reimagined by French designer Tristan Aure.
Step out of the door, past the elegant lobby staff whose pleated blue skirts resemble Grace Kelly’s dress in To Catch a Thief, and stop to look back. The two domes on the seaward corners of the building were modelled allegedly on the breasts of the then-famous courtesan, Carolina Otero.