Pierre GruneberG’s

swim coach extraordinaire

everlasting love affair

with Le Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat,

A Four seasons Hotel

“People ask what’s my secret. I tell them, ‘Well, I really just like people.’

Taking an interest in people leads to all sorts of things.”

by Lan ie Goodman

Pierre GruneberG’s

swim coach extraordinaire

everlasting love affair

with Le Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat,

A Four seasons Hotel

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swim coach extraordinaire

Pierre Gruneberg’s everlasting love affair with Le Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, A Four Seasons Hotel

It’s high noon on one warm spring day in 1950. A young man dressed in shorts with

a rucksack slung on his back, is standing in front of the impressive pine-shaded grounds of the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat. After

hitchhiking to the Riviera from Paris, he has just walked over 14 kilometers, all the way from Nice. He’s a bit tired and thirsty, since he didn’t manage to thumb a ride that morning, but that’s the last thing on his mind.

View of Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat peninsula

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At nineteen, he cuts a strikingly handsome figure—tall, tanned and muscular, with deep blue eyes and wavy blond hair.

Undaunted by the grandeur of this dazzling white Belle Époque palace, the young man strides over to an elevated vantage point in the hotel gardens and looks out toward the Mediterranean below. He can’t believe his eyes: hidden away, down by the rocky shore, is an exquisite seawater Olympic-sized pool.

It is a glittering aquamarine jewel at the bottom of a steep incline of terraced gardens. He is standing on the little road that separates the verdant hotel grounds from the entrance of the Club Dauphin, his back to the hotel. He ventures a few steps down the garden path that leads to the sea to have a better look.

Richly-fragranced flowers in every shade of soft pastels, windswept umbrella pines, palm trees and exotic plants he’s never seen before. The winding walkway, bordered by a tangle of wild tropical succulents, descends to the pool. There’s a big deck lined with sunbeds and umbrellas. From down there, he thinks, it’s a symphony in blue: all you see is the sweeping horizon, the pale of the sky, the cobalt Mediterranean, and the turquoise pool.

Pierre Gruneberg has already made up his mind. This is where he wants to be.

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The Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat in the early 50s The Club Dauphin in the early 40s

and nowadays

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Within a few years, this young dynamic swim coach will become legendary thanks to his unique skills and engaging presence. Gruneberg will also devise a personalized method to teach his clients how to swim. Something deceptively simple but that works like a charm. Many of his high-profile celebrity clients will vanquish their long-seated fear of the water; others will bring their children for lessons, astonished by the results.

Pierre with his pupils

Pierre with famous French actor Jean-Paul Belmondo

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They call him a magician, a philosopher, and a master physiotherapist, when it comes to massages. Along with his trademark wide fringed straw hat and long pole, guests remember his immense kindness and patience.

Fast forward to today: more than six decades later, nothing has changed down at the Club Dauphin.At age 86, Gruneberg says he has barely altered his routine. Rain or shine, before reporting to work at the pool at 10am, he, dives off the hotel pontoon

and begins a slow steady crawl to the Cap Ferrat lighthouse and back. “It’s about 800 meters, less than a mile, but I do it regularly and slowly,” he explains. “The day always starts with a swim in the sea.”

Pierre’s swan dive

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Call it serendipity. In retrospect, Gruneberg says that everything began on that enchanted

day when he first set foot on the Cap-Ferrat in 1950. “I also had a lot of nerve,” he recalls with a smile.

Indeed, his deeply fulfilling career both as a swim and ski instructor—not to mention the innumerable encounters and ensuing friendships with some of the world’s most remarkable people—would never have happened, if he hadn’t clung to one stubborn idea.

“As soon as I arrived on Côte d’Azur, I decided that I didn’t want to be in the water all day, in the sea. I could have worked in Juan-les-Pins or in Nice, but I had it in my head that I wanted to be

at a pool. We sometimes forget that in the 1950s, there were very few seaside hotels with pools.”

“After a few days, I went to see the President of Swimming Instruction in Nice for advice. ‘There’s a nice swimming pool at the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat,’ he told me.”

Nonetheless, Gruneberg didn’t know what to expect.

“When I was growing up in Paris, I never thought I’d be a swim coach,” he admits. “I started working as a tourist guide in Paris in 1946, but I soon realized that I didn’t like the job at all. So then I passed my swimming exams, figuring I would give it a go.”

Gruneberg in Courchevel

Pierre with Charlie Chaplin’s son The Grand-Hôtel in the early 20th century

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Pierre with his Club Dauphin fan club

Grand-Hôtel lobby today

When Pierre stepped into the stately marble lobby of the Grand Hôtel for the very first time, he went straight to the reception desk and asked to see the hotel Director, at the time, Monsieur Voyenne, “just for five minutes”.

“The Director didn’t want to receive me because I had no introduction and hadn’t made an appointment, so I hid my rucksack in the bushes and sat in the hall for two hours. When Monsieur Voyenne finally came out of his office he looked me, standing there in my shorts, asked me what I wanted. I told him that I wanted was to work at the wonderful swimming pool. No, I didn’t have any previous experience—just a diploma.”

Plus, I speak English, Italian and German, Pierre added emphatically.

(Born in Cologne, Pierre Gruneberg and his family fled Germany when the Nazis rose to power and found refuge in Paris).

“My fluency in various languages must have interested him because Monsieur Voyenne brought me into his back office. Then he showed me a photo of four very pretty girls in bathing costumes, lounging by the side of pool. ‘What do you think of this photo?’ he asked. I was shaking because I knew he was testing me—and after a moment’s hesitation, I answered: ‘well, they’re lovely, but I’ve come here to work, not to chase girls.’ This was apparently what he wanted to hear, and I was sent a contract to begin the job the following summer.”

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“I have worked at the Club Dauphin ever since—apart from the summer of 1951 and 1952, when I did my military service in the French Alpine troops. I chose my replacement carefully—an older and not-very-handsome swimming coach!” Gruneberg chuckles.

From the outset, the atmosphere on the tip of the Cap Ferrat was different than anywhere Pierre Gruneberg had previously known. Peaceful, out of time. “Even the concave shape of the hotel,” he adds. “It looks like two white wings that embrace the sea.”

The Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat today

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In 1908, the Grand-Hôtel opened its doors; the following year, an ornate Gustave Eiffel-designed Rotunda was added to the lobby. At the time, the Cap Ferrat was nearly deserted and bare recognizable—photos from that era show an expanse of an arid land surrounding the palace and not a single villa in sight. It wasn’t long before the hotel’s sun-drenched park began to flourish, and guests arrived in droves. The word was out: high society’s upper crust—industrialists in banking, finance, heads of state—flocked to the Côte d’Azur to escape the dreary winter grey skies and freezing temperatures. By the turn of the century, thanks to the Calais-Mediterranean Express and luxurious Wagons-Lits and the

local train station in nearby Beaulieu-sur-mer, the peninsula of Saint-Jean-Cap Ferrat became more accessible. Since the 1880s, Beaulieu had already become the favored winter resort with Europe’s crowned royalty, beginning with Queen Victoria, but the discovery of Cap Ferrat was just beginning. This privileged pocket of seaside splendor did not escape the attention of enterprising King Leopold II of Belgium, who bought up large expanses of the Cap Ferrat (including the 14 acres of the hotel which he subsequently sold). Leopold II also acquired a huge chunk of land above that sits on a rocky hill, perched above the Cap Ferrat, La Léopolda, which has remained one of the most celebrated estates on the Riviera.

The King’s shrewd purchasing of seaside property didn’t stop there. Leopold (who was known to swim daily with his white beard tucked in a rubber envelope) then built himself another sumptuous home, Les Cèdres and created breathtaking exotic gardens. The legendary villa was later purchased by the Marnier-Lapostolle family, heirs of Grand Marnier, who are still the current owners and occasionally organize private visits of their spectacular botanical domain.

Another extraordinary landmark located on the tiny sub-peninsula of St Hospice (minutes away from the Grand-Hôtel du

Cap-Ferrat, Four Seasons) is the Ephrussi Gardens, created by Baroness Béatrice Ephrussi de Rothchild from 1905 to 1912. A colorful and eccentric figure in Cap Ferrat’s history, the Baroness designed 17 acres of gardens, laid out designed like the bridge of an ocean liner, named her estate after the cruise ship Île de France and dressed her 34 gardeners in sailor suits. Today, both the extensive blossoming gardens and the Baroness’ pink Venetian-inspired palazzino are open to the public and the museum is considered one of France’s highly-prized cultural treasures.Eiffel Rotonda

Villa Ephrussi de Rothchild

1918

When Gruneberg arrived at the Grand-Hôtel in early 1950s, the formal

atmosphere had changed considerably from the days of the turn-of–the-century aristocratic clientele, who packed up their trunks and returned home as soon as the warm spring temperatures arrive. Sunbathing was in vogue and summer tourism on Côte d’Azur would soon become widely popular.

“What I found was an enormous amount of youngsters from 5 to 18 who were on holiday with their parents. The children stayed by the pool all day—because, in fact, no one had swimming pools at that time, even the villa owners. It was considered quite a luxury.”

In fact, ever since its construction in April 1939, the hotel’s unique salt-water 33 by 12-meter swimming pool had become associated with unmitigated glamor.

“One difference from today is that back in the 1950s, the clients were all French,” Gruneberg continues. “Only one percent were foreigners, which is almost the complete opposite of our current hotel guests. Some came with nannies,

but not very often. Many of the kids stayed with me all day,” he laughs. In fact, the Pied Piper image has always suited Gruneberg, whose natural magnetic charm, straw hat and long pole quickly became a part of the landscape. But he began to attract even more attention once he started conducting windsurfing and water-skiing lessons in the pool. Unheard of!

“I would wait until later in the day, when the pool was nearly empty,” he says. “Generally, I would be working with youngsters from age 7 to 15. First, you get them used to wearing skis in the water, make them comfortable with sitting on them. After a while, I would drag them about 20 meters across the pool, so they could learn to stand up, as if they were being pulled by a boat. It was a lot of fun.”

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Pierre with Charlie Chaplin’s Daughter

Pierre teaching French actor Darry Cowl how to swin

Silvia Monfort with Pierre practicing water skiing in the Club Dauphin

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Flashback to the “Dolce Vita” years of the 1960s, when icons of the silver screen spent long periods on the French Riviera—everyone from Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to Greta Garbo and Kirk Douglas. Yet, the atmosphere was relaxed, en famille. Guests and non-guests alike congregated at the Club Dauphin’s pool deck to luxuriate in the sunshine.

Inevitably, Pierre had also begun to meet visiting VIPs and the English and American expatriate “regulars” who lived nearby, like celebrated British actor, David Niven (Casino Royale, Curse of the Pink Panther). At the time, Niven owned a magnificent pink mansion on the Promenade Maurice Rouvier, the picturesque seacoast path that links Saint-Jean Cap-Ferrat with Beaulieu-sur-mer.

Soon after Gruneberg had taught David Niven’s daughters how to swim, a close friend of the actor (who happened to be the world’s most beloved movie star) gave Pierre a call.

“One day, a man telephoned me to ask if I could give his children swimming lessons. I said, of course. He didn’t say who he was at first.” At the end of the conversation, Gruneberg discovered that the voice on the phone was none other than Charlie Chaplin.

“I went to visit Chaplin at his home in Vevey, Switzerland not long after I gave his children lessons at the Club Dauphin. He was charming and loved to joke – he told me that ‘much to his regret’, his little daughter, Victoria; had fallen desperately in love with me.”

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Pierre with Charlie Chaplin’s childrenFrom the left: Eugene, Victoria and Josephine

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Which brings Pierre to his pride and joy, the “Gold Book” (Livre d’Or) which has expanded to almost thirty notebooks. He points to the photos of the Chaplin brood—Geraldine, Michael and Victoria—who are bobbing happily in the pool, while their mother, Oona, looks on.

It is not simply a book of autographs. Over the years, Gruneberg has compiled an outstanding collection of messages and photos—a treasure trove of poems, drawings, sketches and heartfelt thanks from the likes of the world’s most famous artists, actors, writers, music and sports stars as well as government bigwigs, from senators to Presidents.

Among the dozens of French actors who frequented the Club Dauphin in the 1960s was the film star, Jean-Paul Belmondo, who also entrusted his children to Pierre for his swim coach expertise. “We have remained good friends ever since,” Pierre says.

Gruneberg has also encountered a surprising number of adults who were never taught to swim.

Gruneberg pauses and smiles. “In fact, that’s how I met my wife, Silvia Monfort.”

Romance was suddenly in the air when in the summer of ’61, the beautiful acclaimed French actress and writer, Silvia Monfort, arrived at the hotel on holiday.

“When she came to the pool for lessons, I found her absolutely superb but didn’t think I’d have a chance. Realistically speaking, a swimming coach would never be able to date a high profile figure like Silvia.“But as the lessons progressed, little by little, we realized that we agreed on all the basic things that are important in life. We had a wonderful relationship for 30 years, right up to the time that she passed away in 1991. We always had an exchange—

I taught Silvia to swim and to ski, since I work at Courchevel as an instructor during the winter. Silvia stimulated my brain, introducing me to all kinds of interesting books, plays, films.”

Published posthumously in 2003, Silvia Monfort’s highly-acclaimed memoir, Lettres à Pierre 1965-1991 (Letters to Pierre) traces the couple’s unlikely love affair, giving a moving poetic account of what was happening in both of their lives. “We were often separated,” Pierre acknowledges. “I was in Cap Ferrat or Courchevel, she was in Paris. It was difficult, at times, but we managed.”

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“For Pierre, a memory of a silly aquatic fool”

Pierre and Darry Cowl relaxing with their wives in the Club Dauphin

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Another star pupil in those years was the beautiful Princess Soraya, the second wife of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the last Shah of Iran, and also a well-known actress.

While many famous guests enjoyed doing their laps in the pool, others never ventured in the water, like Elizabeth Taylor, Aristotle Onassis, or Pablo Picasso.

“Picasso sometimes came to visit with his friends. of course, one day, I asked him to draw me a little sketch for my Gold Book.”

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During that same period, one would often see another local luminary, poet, painter, playwright and film director, Jean Cocteau, who lived on the Cap Ferrat in a charming white seaside house, the Villa Santo Sospir, owned by Francine Weisweiller, a renowned patron of the arts. Weisweiller first met Cocteau in 1950 when she financed his film Les Enfants Terribles and invited him to the villa for a few days; he ended up staying eleven years. Not wanting to remain idle, he decorated Santo Sospir’s walls with frolicking Greek gods and mythological frescoes.

Still privately owned, this stunning villa was recently opened to the public and may be visited by appointment.

“I have a quite a few unique sketches by Cocteau,” Gruneberg says.

Like many Cap Ferrat residents in those days, Francine Weisweiller and Cocteau were drawn to the hotel for the glamorous allure and sparkling social scene, which extended to the poolside.

“First I taught Francine’s daughter, Carole, how to swim. After a while, Francine and I became good friends. On Sundays, I was often invited to her beautiful villa with my wife, Silvia—Francine greatly admired her. We always had lobster for dinner and had a wonderful time. In her later years, Francine came back to hotel for swimming lessons twice a week.”

“We love each other,” Weisweller wrote in Pierre’s Livre d’Or. “Pierre, you are a wonderful man,” echoed Cocteau’s lifetime friend and actor, Jean Marais, who added a whimsical drawing to accompany his words.

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Left: sketch by Picasso in Pierre’s Golden Book . Right: pages by actor Jean Marais and Jean Cocteau

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One memorable encounter took place quite by accident—a man who was flailing helplessly in the shallow end, turned out to be a world-renowned artist.“I saw this fellow with a long mustache who was almost drowning in the shallow end,” Gruneberg says. “I could clearly see that he was frightened of the water, so I asked, ‘why don’t you learn how to swim?’ While I was giving him a lesson, his fiancée came up to me. “Do you know who you are teaching? Well, he’s a genius! He is Mathieu, one of the greatest French painters!”“I’m sorry I don’t know this gentleman,”

I told her. After we finished, I said to him, ‘I hear you are a great painter. Would you please give me a little sketch? I already have a Picasso, a Clavé, the Catalan painter, and a César—and I’d love to have something from you as well.’He took a pencil and went zippppppppp! Very quickly, he produced a drawing that I found absolutely worthless. But when I went to various museums, I discovered that all the Mathieu paintings looked just like my little scribble. It took him one second to draw it and I was sure that he was pulling my leg—but he wasn’t! His style is a sort of an electrical way of painting.”

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One of the most outstanding features of Cap Ferrat is that this lush peninsula has always been blessed with superb

weather. The mountains that rise sharply along the coast are nearly free of vegetation and act as reflectors to the sun, radiating dazzling heat. The Mediterranean is a deep transparent blue. It is no wonder that a staggering number of high-profile figures, dignitaries, artists and actors chose to spend time in this tranquil, extremely private and unspoiled corner of the Riviera.

Among the most revered was “barefoot” American dancer Isadora Duncan, who lived with her lover, Paris Singer (heir of the Singer sewing machines fortunes) on his vast property, Château Singer, during the 1920s.

Sketch by French painter Georges Mathieu

View of Saint Jean Cap-Ferrat from Eze exotic garden

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Steps away from the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, on a quiet residential street, lived British writer Somerset Maugham. In 1926, he purchased a stunning square white Moorish-style villa with green shutters, a large indoor patio surrounded by tropical gardens, La Mauresque, which had been built by the Archibishop of Nice at the beginning of the century.

In his memoir, Strictly Personal, the writer states that he was in search of “the simple life” on the Cap Ferrat. However, that didn’t prevent Maugham from living in great style, with a dozen servants and a collection of modern art including paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Monet Picasso , Gauguin and Renoir.Throughout the decades , he lav i sh ly entertained a steady stream of the Who’s Who of high society including Winston Churchill, Lord Beaverbrook, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Cecil Beaton, the Aga Khan, Noel Coward, George Cukor, Harpo Marx, Marc Chagall (who also had a neighboring home on the Cap Ferrat), and writer Evelyn Waugh. Maugham’s gardens were the talk of the town. It was said that he often served his guests avocado ice cream made out of fruits grown from

cuttings he had smuggled into France in a golf bag.

After World War II, Maugham frequently returned to his sumptuous Riviera retreat until his death in 1965, at age 91.

Although he preferred entertaining at home, Maugham would occasionally stop at the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat for a drink, a seven-minute stroll from La Mauresque. In 2009, the hotel’s former old-fashioned “Somerset Maugham Bar”, which had been named after the writer, was turned into an elegant sophisticated bar. One of today’s highlights is the bartender’s signature cocktails, which range from the Cointreau-based Belle Epoque to the bitter orange Cocteau laced with amber-colored Suze, Cocteau’s preferred aperitif.

During the late 50s and 1960s, Maugham’s devoted s ec re ta r y, A lan Sear l e , o f t en came to the Club Dauphin, and invited Gruneberg to dine at La Mauresque on several occasions.

“It was quite an honor! I was fascinated by Maugham, but he was quite shy and he had a terrible stutter,” Pierre recalls.

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2Gruneberg also has vivid memories of Paul McCartney’s visit to the hotel with his wife, Linda Eastman, and their young daughter, Stella, during the 1970s when she was a baby. When he and Sir Paul swam in the sea together, Pierre immediately sensed that something was wrong.

“He was a little afraid of jellyfish, so he liked me to be with him, right by his side. I always have little goggles when I swim, and since I spend more time with my face in the water than out, I look around and avoid them. But to be honest, in all the years I’ve been swimming, I’ve rarely been stung by a jellyfish.”

At the end of Paul McCartney’s stay, he signed the Livre d’Or with an enthusiastic message:“Me and the missus thank you for some laughs, some lessons and some good times at the Grand Hôtel.”

If anyone ever needed a bit of reassurance, it was the beloved American actor, Robin Williams, who was also a guest at the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat early in his career.

“Robin was a wonderful person, absolutely charming, and we really had fun. But he was afraid of sharks! When I went out at sea with him, I had to keep reassuring him that there were no sharks, here in the Mediterranean. He didn’t really believe me, but he felt more comfortable.”

Gruneberg’s former training as a physiotherapist has also opened many doors. He has massaged former President George and Barbara Bush, who were guests at the hotel, as well as Sir Elton John, who preferred massage sessions in the privacy of his villa in Nice. Other stars of the music industry, like singer Tina Turner, have also called upon Pierre to give lessons in her own home, in the heights of Villefranche-sur-mer.

After sixty-odd years, the list of celebrities at the Club Dauphin reads like the A-lister’s Almanac: Domenico Dolce of Dolce & Gabbana, starchitect Norman Foster, Bono of U2, talk show celebrity, Oprah Winfrey, actor Pierce Brosnan (“I didn’t have to teach James Bond how to swim!”) and legendary soccer stars Sol Campbell and Basil Boli (“they both had to learn from scratch.”).

Pierre and Robin Williams

A memory of Paul McCartney’s visit, with his wife, Linda and daughter Stella

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Pierre and French singer Johnny Hallyday,Tina Turner and Bono

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If you ask Gruneberg to single out one encounter that deeply impressed him, he would probably tell you that giving swimming lessons to the Nobel Peace Prize-winning writer and philosopher, Elie Wiesel, was one of them. “He started with the salad bowl and he wasn’t at all ashamed to do it at the side of the pool. He made enormous progress very quickly.”

When Wiesel expressed his admiration for his method, Pierre, who was a bit intimidated by this great intellect, responded: “I’m just a simple lifeguard”. “And I’m just a simple writer.”, Wiesel, answered with a smile.

In Pierre’s Gold Book, Elie Wiesel (author of All The Rivers Run to the Sea) wrote: “All the rivers run to the sea, but it is thanks to you, dear Pierre, that I can now swim in them.”

What is the secret to Pierre Gruneberg’s overwhelming success? Gruneberg

attributes his quick results to his patented The Pierre Gruneberg “salad bowl method”, which he devised back in 1953. It still works wonders on toddlers and adult acquaphobes alike, he says, and has also attracted a great deal of media attention.

“When I tell people to stick their head in a plastic salad bowl, they are astonished…”, he admits with a smile.

“It looks simple, but it’s actually quite sophisticated. What I noticed, right from the very beginning of my swim coaching career, was that learning the strokes was easy. The difficult part for most people is the breathing, which can’t be taught easily when you’re in

the water. However, if you take the person out of the water—make them comfortable, hand them a little towel and some goggles—it’s much easier to show them what to do. After one half hour, you can already see how quickly people catch on. They sometimes stay one minute or two minutes with their face in the water, bubbling out—one bubble from the mouth, one bubble from the nose— while keeping their eyes open. Soon, they have perfect control of their breathing.”Understandably, the glamorous set at the poolside might make anyone feel self-conscious about face dunking in a transparent bowl filled with water. If this is the case, Gruneberg conducts part of his lesson away from the crowd, at the shady little park near the children’s pool, just beside the Club Dauphin.

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Pierre instructing how to swim with his “salad bowl method”

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His sterling advice to parents: get your children used to the water as soon as possible, at ages 2 or 3. Try to make them happy, play games but be gentle. “Some people throw their kids in the water and they have a terrible fright, which they can’t get rid of later on. I’ve met many adults who were pushed into the water when they were adolescents—and sometimes got caught in the big waves—and that panic stays with them.”

When it comes to correcting breathing issues, Gruneberg never hesitates, even with celebrity clients. “When I swam with Ralph Lauren in the sea, I didn’t notice anything unusual right away. You can tell from the kind of bubbles people make that they aren’t breathing properly. He became a much better swimmer after a bit of coaching.”

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Sketch by a German humorist: “The first time, it is all about confidence”

Mademoiselle Walter, one of his pupil

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And the high-profile clients keep coming…If only King Leopold II of

Belgium could see the Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat as it is today, he would be stupefied by the changes over the last century.

The King would doubtlessly be impressed by the hotel’s extensive blooming gardens, designed by renowned landscape architect, Jean Mus, which now comprises over 400 botanical species and rare plants. The Club Dauphin offers guests more than just a dip in the water, beginning with the heavenly vista from the funicular that brings you down to the pool. The shaded Club Dauphin Restaurant features an exquisite variety of market-fresh Mediterranean specialties (“My favorite is their delicious salade niçoise,” says Pierre) and also offers seasonal all-day weekend brunch. These days, the Grand-Hôtel du Cap Ferrat Four Seasons allows parents to laze on the sunbeds while the young guests are well looked after. The latest “Kid’s Club” program, an outdoor Children’s Playhouse located in the Club Dauphin garden, offers a variety of sports and artistic activities.

Renovated in 2009, the hotel’s specious 74 rooms and suites were designed by Pierre-

Yves Rochon, whose stylish refurbishment combines classic pure lines from the Riviera 40s and 50s with pale earth tones and a splash of jade and turquoise. The ultimate tribute to the poet and artist: a splendiferous fourth-f loor Cocteau penthouse suite boasts panoramic sea views and a terrace Jacuzzi. Add to that the gastronomic garden-level restaurant, Le Cap, lined with Cocteau-inspired frescoes.The newest addition to the hotel is a gently-curved contemporary-style annex, designed by architect Luc Svetchine. Set back in a pine forest, there are 24 vast sea view rooms and suites with a private plunge pool. For an extended stay, the 4-bedroom Villa Rose Pierre, tucked away in a hidden corner of the pine forest, offers everything from tennis courts and a gym, plus a full staff.

Ever since Four Seasons managed the Grand-Hôtel du Cap in 2015, the newly branded Four Seasons Spa is the perfect complement to the Club Dauphin for total well-being—a curvy 800-square-foot modern building with 5 treatment rooms, a Technogym with a coach on hand, an indoor pool, plus 5 outdoor treatment tents and an open-air fitness center.

Pool Suite Pinewood Suite

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I’ve been everywhere—Japan, Australia, America—but there’s no other place I’d

rather be than the Cap Ferrat.” Why? It is unique and wild, both private and accessible, Pierre says, unlike much of the overdeveloped Riviera coast. He still enjoys a stroll on the rocky coastal trail that winds around the peninsula—and he’s not the only one. On Sunday afternoons, you’ll see entire families out for a leisurely walk around the Cap, taking in the natural beauty.

“Even now, I still feel the same pleasure as I did years ago, when I arrive for work in the morning,” Gruneberg muses. “I could easily take the funicular down to the Club Dauphin pool., like many of the hotel guests, but I always prefer to walk. I like to stop two or three times, look at the flowers and trees, take my time, look at the sea. And that’s when I say to myself: when I die, I hope the path to paradise to look exactly like this one. The Club Dauphin is the closest thing I know to paradise on earth.

“

Acknowledgements: Pierre Gruneberg and his wife Doreen Chanter

Designed by G G FactoryPhoto credit: Christian Horan Photography, Inc, Manuel Zublena, Gregoire Gardette

Printer: Les Arts Graphiques, Nice - France

“People ask what’s my secret. I tell them, ‘Well, I really just like people.’

Taking an interest in people leads to all sorts of things.”