F. Scott Fitzgerald famously immortalized the breathtaking Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc, perched on a rocky promontory in the Mediterranean midway between St. Tropez and Monaco, when he wrote in his 1934 novel Tender Is the Night about "the large, proud, rose-colored hotel" on the French Riviera that "has become a summer resort of notable, fashionable people."
Recently, the tradtional hotel has made some accommodations to the 21st century, such as a $67 million renovation that included installing TVs and minibars in the rooms for the first time and finally accepting credit cards and eliminating the former cash-only policy.
"I had the most romantic times of my life there," says producer Robert Evans, 83, who spent summers during his marriage to Ali MacGraw at the hotel. "It was impossibly glamorous. Everyone who was there — not just Ali but [David] Niven, Taylor, Burton, Johnny Hallyday — everyone was a star.
It was at Eden Roc, the hotel's seaside pavilion — with its famous seawater swimming pool, carved out of basalt rock 100 years ago this month — that Rita Hayworth rendezvoused with Prince Aly Khan (after she stood up the Shah of Iran for a lunch date).
The du Cap’s seawater swimming pool was carved out of basalt rock 100 years ago.
Producer Brett Ratner checked out of the hotel 10 years ago after being "humiliated" by being relegated to a room in the dreaded "Annex," a building just off the hotel. Ratner even went so far as to write a scathing piece about the du Cap for Vanity Fair, entitled "Why I Hate the Hotel du Crap."
From Marlene Dietrich to Madonna, the hotel has been a home away from home to the super-famous for 125 years. The Kennedy family summered here in 1938 when JFK was 21 years old (it's where Dietrich began her affair with Joe Sr.). Picasso drew the restaurant's menu in 1955, around the time Hemingway was staying at the hotel.
Like every great hotel, Cap-Eden-Roc has seen its share of scandal — including accusations of embezzlement that still swirl around the former GM, Jean-Claude Irondelle, now 85, who continues to battle charges that he siphoned a million dollars in cash from the till.
The pool as it was seen on Aug. 29, 1933.