The Newly Renovated £300 Million French Riviera Building Drawing Rich Americans

The French Riviera needs little introduction. It’s long been beloved as a vacation destination, with the jet-set flocking to the Cannes film festival in May, partying at the beach clubs of St Tropez and staying in storied resorts like Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc.

But on some parts of the coast, the glamor has faded. Take the striking white art deco Hôtel Provençal on the western end of Cap d’Antibes, built for American railway heir Frank Jay Gould, which opened its doors in 1927. It had drawn names like Charlie Chaplin, Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso as guests before closing for good in 1977 and sitting vacant ever since. Billionaire British mobile phone mogul John Caudwell, a frequent visitor to the area, says he’d often pass the empty building on his cycle route and admire it.