Words by Sarah Kelleher
Those seeking a slice of the French Riviera’s 1930s heyday, when a heady mix of royalty, nobility, couturiers, artists and writers descended on this glamourous, glittering stretch of coastline, will find a warm welcome at Hôtel Belles Rives. An Art Deco jewel in the crown of the Cap D’Antibes, the hotel’s historic credentials are impeccable – originally known as Villa Saint-Louis, the property was home to F. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald from the sun-drenched summer of 1925, a period that served as inspiration for Fitzgerald’s Tender is the Night.
With flashes of azure sea shimmering just beyond the terrace, strolling through the doors of Hôtel Belles Rives feels like stepping back in time. The hotel has retained every inch of its latter-day charm, with a genuine Art Deco elevator cage adorned with a golden ship, sails flying, waiting to carry guests to their rooms in style. Sporting high ceilings and geometrically patterned fabrics, our room’s balcony doors were flung wide open to reveal a Juliet balcony and views across the bay towards Cannes’ Pointe Croisette peninsula. We took the afternoon light pouring into our room as a hint to don our robes and potter down to the hotel’s jetty for a spot of sunbathing.
For an even better view across the bay, grab a sunbed on the private beach. Featuring a parasol-festooned pontoon stretching out into the sea, and a curve of the coastline all its own, it’s a delightful place to bask in the sun or enjoy a refreshing dip in the clear bay waters. Staff are on hand to provide snacks and cocktails, and beachside Restaurant Plages Belles Rives serves up a delicious lunch and dinner menu that’s suitably heavy on nautical delicacies, such as lobster bisque pasta and the catch of the day.
Evenings here are an event worth dressing up for. Make like a flapper, opt for your best glad rags and head to the hotel’s south-facing terrace, where blue-and-white patterned wicker chairs shaded by palm trees and greenery sit, waiting for you to enjoy the sunset sinking below the sea. Best experienced with a cocktail from the Bar Fitzgerald’s extensive menu, I sipped on the delightfully tart Hemingway, full of tangy sea fennel, yuzu and grapefruit flavours, while my companion enjoyed their Safran Smash concoction of Mezcal, pineapple juice and lime. Plates of Provence’s famous courgette flowers, stuffed with ricotta and fried in a golden batter, and thinly-sliced tuna tartare were the perfect accompaniment, as the gentle sounds of piano jazz music drifted out into the warm air.
Guests hungering for more fine dining can also book into Michelin-starred hotel restaurant La Passagère, for a seafood feast prepared by chef Aurélian Véquaud, followed by an array of desserts masterminded by pastry maestro Steve Moracchini, the creator of the fabulous Rose Belles Rives dessert, a beautifully constructed red rose, crafted out of delicate sugar work, and bursting with lychee and raspberry flavours. If you’ve any space left the next morning, then the hotel’s breakfast buffet of creamy scrambled eggs, salmon and pastries will see to that, although you can of course make space for the next delicious meal with a walk round the Cap D’Antibes coastal route. As a lover of Art Deco interiors, I couldn’t help but be charmed by the coffee poured from the breakfast coffee pot, evocative of the sort of crockery used on 1930s ocean liners, and embossed with the hotel’s sailboat crest. It’s just one of the little details that add up to an experience as dazzlingly luxurious as the jazz-age luminaries that used to frequent this part of Provence.
To learn more, or book a room, click here.
