PROFILES

“For my grandfather who had left his native Russia, discovering Paris then Antibes was like a dream.”

The five-star Belles Rives hotel looking out over the Mediterranean has the captivating charm of places that exude history. The history of Antibes Juan-les-Pins to start with, then that of the Estène-Chauvin family that has been modelling the hotel’s destiny for four generations. These rooms remember F Scott Fitzgerald typing Tender is the Night, for the famous author helped make the building, then known as Villa Saint-Louis, a favoured place to stay for the American jet set who came to share the joys of sea bathing and partying between the wars. Then Simone and Bona Estène arrived. “For my grandfather who had left his native Russia, discovering Paris then Antibes was like a dream,” recounts Marianne Estène-Chauvin, founder of the Belles Rives Group. “That’s what decided him to become a hotelier. He added a wing and two additional floors to the original building.” And so the villa became the Belles Rives, the Côte d’Azur’s first waterside hotel, in the days when guests arrived with trunks for long full-board stays.
“My grandparents had three children and it was my Uncle Casimir who took over the hotel. We lived in Paris, so every summer the Belles Rives was where the family reunited. As a student I came to work here, manning the cash desk, mending bath mats, doing the shopping,” Marianne remembers. Finally, after running a contemporary art gallery in Casablanca for 10 years, she came to help her uncle as assistant manager. On Casimir’s death she knew what she had to do: “Taking over the Belles Rives was my dearest wish.” A lot has happened since then, with the purchase of the neighbouring Hôtel Juana, the creation of the Fitzgerald Literature Prize and the Meilland Ball with the eponymous rose grower, and Marianne’s son joining the team. Antoine Chauvin-Estène sums up his feelings: “The Belles Rives holds a history I grew up with, that gives it a special attraction, and I too am intent on continuing to satisfy our very international clientele by taking our hotel forward, into the future.”

Par Eve Chatelet – Photo Sophie Boulet