InterContinental Carlton Cannes Hotel

The InterContinental Carlton Cannes is a 343-room luxury hotel built in 1911, located at 58 La Croisette in Cannes on the French Riviera.

Intercontinental Carlton Hotel
One of the domes
Ground level view from the Boulevard de la Croisette

History

The hotel building was built from 1909 to 1910, and from 1912 to 1913 for Henry Ruhl, a Swiss hotelier.[1] It was designed by architects Charles Dalmas and Marcellin Mayère.[1]

Part of the InterContinental chain, the Carlton is famous for hosting movie stars from around the world during the annual Film Festival. Famously, the hotel was a central location for the Alfred Hitchcock film To Catch a Thief starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant. In 1970 it featured in the Peter Sellers/Goldie Hawn comedy There's a Girl in My Soup and exterior scenes were filmed at the entrance to the hotel and on the hotel beach. The hotel lobby scene and interior scenes were done on a film set.

While staying at the Hotel Carlton during the 1955 Cannes Film Festival, Academy Award winning movie star Grace Kelly had an arranged meeting and photo shoot with Prince Rainier III of Monaco; they married in 1956.

In the summer of 1983 the hotel and its private beach featured prominently in the music video for the Elton John song I'm Still Standing. (The video also appears in the 2019 film Rocketman.) During the shooting of the video the Carlton was the scene of a drunken party involving John and the band Duran Duran that has since become something of a legend at the hotel. Significant damages to the rooms in John's suite resulted.[2] Both exterior and interior shots appear in New Order's 1993 music video for the single, "World (The Price of Love)", and exterior shots of the front of the hotel and the jetty leading out of the beach appear in Steps´ 1999 music video for their single "Love's Got a Hold on My Heart".

The Carlton's distinctive domes on both seaward corners were reputedly designed to resemble the breasts of Caroline Otero ("La Belle Otero") the most famous courtesan of the French Riviera during the years surrounding World War I. The Carlton's elegant seventh floor formal dining room was named La Belle Otero in her honour (this restaurant was closed and the entire seventh floor is a VIP floor comprising the hotel's finest suites). There are a couple of restaurants: the Carlton Restaurant on the ground floor with a large outdoor terrace; and the Carlton Beach Restaurant. There is one bar: the Carlton Bar which serves as a hotel lounge (La Petite Bar, off the entrance lobby was closed in 2015).

In April 2011, the prestigious hotel was sold by the investment bank Morgan Stanley to the Lebanese businessman Toufic Aboukhater, who owns several other InterContinental hotels.[3]

Crime

The Carlton Cannes has been the target of several high-profile jewelry robberies.

On 11 August 1994 three men brandishing automatic weapons entered the jewelry store in the hotel and proceeded to open fire. The thieves made off with over $60 million in jewelry, and precious stones. After the investigation it was determined that the thieves were firing blanks as no bullet holes were evident. The thieves have not been apprehended.[4]

On 28 July 2013 a thief stole $137 million in jewels from the hotel in a daylight robbery (see Carlton Intercontinental Hotel heist). The jewelry was part of a temporary exhibition by mineralogist and Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev called Leviev Diamond House. No suspects have been charged with the heist.[5]

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References
  1. "Monuments historiques: Hôtel Carlton". French Ministry of Culture. Retrieved 6 July 2017.
  2. https://www.eltonjohn.com/stories/im-still-standing-4k
  3. Unattributed. "L'hôtel Carlton à Cannes vendu" Le Figaro. 12 April 2011.
  4. Unattributed. "Great heists of our time." BBC News. 18 February 2002. Web. 29 July 2013.
  5. Associated Press. "Jewels Valued at $53 Million Stolen in Cannes." The Wall Street Journal. 28 July 2013. Web. 29 July 2013.

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