CANNES — The Hotel Barrière Le Majestic has long been a destination for celebrities who come to Cannes, France, for its glitzy events and suave celebrations.
Amid the business of the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival — which has drawn a starry crowd, including the likes of Queen Latifah, Paris Hilton, Elon Musk and Travis Kelce, among others — Majestic staffers chatted exclusively with Page Six to reveal how they cater to visiting A-listers.
Gilles Bastoni, who took over his father’s position as head concierge in 2006, tells us that every VIP’s demands are met — “unless it’s illegal,” he jokes.
“Basically, my job is to satisfy all the requests of the guests. As long as they’re legal, for sure,” he says.
“But it can be from just reservations for a restaurant up to [something that’s a] skies-the-limit [request]. Renting a yacht, finding a ticket for an event, helicopters, car with drivers, getting a dress for a special event… no limit.”
Bastoni says the wealthy — who pay upwards of $4,000 per night for a suite in the hotel — make wild requests at times, but those of Hollywood’s elite typically come with “a bit more spice.”
Such was the case about a decade ago when actress Marion Cotillard encountered a fashion emergency prior to attending the Cannes Film Festival and the hotel was tasked with retrieving a forgotten dress from Paris, which is a nine hour car ride from the lodge.
“Getting a dress from Paris for a celebrity when it was forgotten and it’s the day she is going to go up the [Palais] stairs,” Bastoni recalls.
“She really wanted this one and in the end I’m not even sure she knew it was forgotten in Paris,” the hospitality pro elaborates. “Basically, she needed it at a certain time in her room to get dressed and the company panicked a bit and we had to find a solution and we sent someone to Paris to pick it up.”
Though his job seems stressful, Bastoni asserts that he enjoys the “adrenaline rush” that accompanies it — and appreciates seeing the approving smile of a star, signaling a job well done.
“We did a big event for the wife of Pierce Bronson [Keely Shaye Smith] a few years ago… and it’s always something when you know who the guy is. He’s a big celebrity; he was James Bond, you know?” Bastoni adds, recalling another memorable mission.
“And you always try to push it a bit more to make them even more happy, let’s say.”
Executive pastry chef Nicolas Maugard loves the thrill of appeasing famous faces, too.
“I remember for Jean Dujardin, a French comedian, it was last year at the movie festival he was in the hotel and he asked me to do a cooking class for him,” the dessert guru shares.
“And, first we went to the food market, we bought different things, and after we came back to do pastries and I remember we did strawberry panna cotta with peach-and-lime something, yeah.”
Maugard also relished in baking a speciality chocolate cake for French soccer star Kylian Mbappé.
“He came for the movie festival in May and we [made a] special cake for him,” the chef enthuses.
As far as cocktails go, hotel bar director Emanuele Balestra has carefully crafted a Majestic-specific drink menu that combines his love for botanicals and fragrances with certain beverages for sips that indulge all senses.
While Balestra has served his fair share of stars, he is reticent to name-drop.
“To be honest, as a bartender, I’ve met many people. Even you have a celebrity living in Monaco, I go to their house making cocktails but I don’t share the name,” he explains.
“Because when you have, [for example], let’s say Chuck Norris, he’s my hero when I was young, if he was sitting at the bar drinking whiskey, it’s not nice to say, ‘Oh, this gentleman drinks.’ It’s nice to have respect to the people who come.”
