The InterContinental Carlton is Cannes’ ageless luxury hotel

“This is MY HOUSE”, declares Giuseppe Vincelli firmly. As GM of the doyenne of Cannes’ luxury hotels, the 1912-vintage InterContinental Carlton Cannes, he regards the 343-room property as his personal fief, which he is caretaking on behalf of the Qatari owners.  Obviously at any time, and especially at such peak periods as Cannes Film Festival and, as now, International Luxury Travel Market ILTM, front-facing rooms are at a premium. Room 633 had a gorgeous view – see above. The entire hotel, by the way, is about to have a top-to-toe re-do.

Tristan Auer, who did part of the renovation of Rosewood’s Le Crillon in Paris, is the new designer here and I cannot wait to see what he does.  It is known that the C-shaped building will have its inner space turned into a gorgeous garden, with a year-round heated 18-metre pool, unique along the Croisette. There will be a new restaurant, not yet shared. I am sure they will not completely change the elegance of the ground floor public areas, which are light and airy with molding around the tops of walls and columns. This is where local residents meet as the Carlton is roughly halfway along the Croisette.

I had a small terrace, just big enough for pre-breakfast coffee for two. There was a new moon at sunrise, which boded well for the next few days of ILTM (the stars were not, however, to be completely aligned as just before ILTM actually started we had one of the worst, and most wetting, downpours I ever remember, and then French unions chose that week to begin their nation-wide strike, which made departure transport a little tricky for some).  I love breakfast at the Carlton. They have a splendid Middle Eastern corner, and no-one raised an eyebrow when asked to put avocado alongside an omelette.

Also there that morning was Karin Sheppard, MD for IHG for Europe, which means from Portugal in the west right across ten time zones to Russia’s Vladivostok to the east.  She has 750 hotels and 160 in what is generally known as ‘pipeline’, in gestation stage.  This is a Dane who has moved from technology on to the commerce of hotels and continued to heading operations too. We had our coffees, took a photo and then, sadly, it was time for me to move on from this lovely and ageless-luxury hotel. READ MORE GOSTELOW THOUGHTS ON www.luxury-te.com AND SEE ROOM 633, BELOW