HISTORY I n 1911, the entrepreneur Emile Bernheim was vacationing in the South of France when he stumbled upon an idyllic spot – a place of beauty and seclusion. Bernheim bought the land and built Le Beauvallon, a private hotel for the Parisian glitterati, which was completed in 1914. However, the opening of the hotel was delayed by the First World War. During this time, Bernheim gave the hotel to the French government and it became the first Red Cross Hospital on the Côte d’Azur. The political past of Le Beauvallon runs deep - the hotel has witnessed two world wars and played a part in both. US forces landed on nearby beaches on 15 August 1944 as part of Operation Dragoon, and Jean Moulin, a hero of the French Resistance, often stayed at Le Beauvallon during the Second World War. Over the years, the hotel has welcomed eminent artists, writers and politicians. The distinguished guest list has included Colette, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Churchill and Edward Kennedy, who all fell for the charms of the Riviera. Now over one hundred years old, Le Beauvallon has undergone a transformation from which it has emerged as a unique private hotel residence, where every modern convenience exists alongside Belle Époque qualities of an otherwise vanished age.