With a 10-liter paint bucket, he is standing beside George Clooney’s bed. Before, he was at Leonardo di Caprio’s – always with a roller and a wiper, in white painting clothes instead of a room service uniform. In the meantime, his colleague from the kitchen crew is putting up wallpaper in the hallway of Marlene Dietrich’s favorite room, and he is getting help from someone who does this full-time: every year, when the Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc on Cap d’Antibes closes its doors from mid-October for the better part of six months, it continues to employ 70 of its approximately 350 staff members on the premises. Waiters suddenly become painters, chefs function as assistants to upholsterers – and the gardeners keep on being gardeners. These measures are taken so that everything can shine anew for the reopening on April 22nd, on time for the Cannes Film Festival.

A castle-like establishment such as this needs a lot of care to be properly maintained, all the more when it is located by the Mediterranean Sea, where wind, salt and especially the sun can affect the estate’s condition. Not to speak of the wear and tear by the guests’ use, from premiere parties to all sorts of other gala events throughout the summer. What it feels like to spend my holidays here? As if I were one of the film stars – like Clooney, Dietrich & Co. The Hotel du Cap Eden-Roc, which has been in possession of the Dr.Oetker family for the last 50 years, does not however limit its clientele to the acting trade. My favorite time of the day here? Sundown. My favorite location: the champagne lounge on the Eden-Roc rooftop terrace down by the sea. My weakness: the in-house Pâtisserie’s chocolates.