OUR STORY

Le Beauvallon began life as Le Golf Hotel – a 100-bedroom hotel commissioned by the Bernheim brothers, Émile and Edmond. Designed by Swiss architect, Julien Flegenheimer, the Belle Époque palace was the epitome of luxury – a place for the Parisian glitterati to see and be seen.

When war broke out in 1914, the brothers offered the hotel to the French government, and for many years, it was used as part of the war effort. After the Great War ended, the entire estate underwent a full refurbishment before finally opening and dazzling guests.

The Roaring Twenties was when Le Beauvallon came into its own. Beloved French writer, Colette; feminist and resistance martyr, Berty Albrecht; actor, Jules Berry; and cyclist and sports journalist, Henri Desgranges – all spent time at the estate. It’s said that poet and playwright Paul Geraldy, even took up residence on the fourth floor to write some of his great works. Today, his legacy lives on in Salon Sud, where you’ll find his most famous poem of all, Toi et Moi, engraved into a specially commissioned work of art.

Throughout the ‘30s, A-lister guests kept arriving. Famed author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, was a frequent visitor during his French Riviera days – a destination he described as ‘the hot, sweet South of France’. Local lore has it that the author even penned a few pages of Tender Is the Night at the estate.

On August 15, 1944, American soldiers landed on the beaches of Beauvallon during Operation Dragoon – the successful Allied invasion of southern France. Following another lavish renovation after the war, the grande dame was hosting once again – this time, Sir Winston Churchill, Lady Churchill, the Grand-Duchess of Luxembourg and Senator Edward Kennedy.

Le Beauvallon later became the backdrop for the silver screen. The beach club was the setting for the 1967 comedy-drama, Two for the Road, starring Audrey Hepburn and Albert Finney. Two years later, in 1969, Le Beauvallon featured in an episode in the cult series Les Gendarmes de Saint-Tropez.

In 1988, Le Beauvallon had a new lease of life after it was passed to M. Armleder – a descendent of the Armleder family who owned and managed the famous Le Richemond hotel in Geneva for four generations. In 1997, the estate was purchased by the current owners and entered the millennium in sparkling form, as one of the first family-friendly luxury hotels in Europe.

By 2016, the estate had entered a new era, when the family transformed it from a luxury hotel into an exclusive-use events venue. More than a century since its inception, Le Beauvallon still intrigues and inspires all who walk through its gates.