Still stunning, but too beautiful to enjoy the Côte d'Azur

Returned to the historic Hotel Martinez where stars have shined since 1929 on the Côte d'Azur.

The Hotel is legendary and underwent an extensive Art Deco refurb a few years ago by Pierre-Yves Rochon.

We always book a few days here within Europe for R&R with the view of not leaving the property to counter cars, museums and galleries in other cities.

Despite the large number of rooms we were checked in swiftly and escorted to the room.

Check in is now stand up and check out sit down which isn't the most welcoming exprience.

We book an Exec Suite on full points and the room was an odd configuration. While the room was large it was separated by the large wardrobe and the couch was orientated toward the wall.

For the first time in my life I found myself rearranging the furniture.

The view was of the new lap pool and garden which is a new addition. We value space, but the Junior Suite with Terrace we had last time had sea views. You can book this room or a Junior Suite for the same points amount and in future I would book the Junior Suite.

We got a bottle of Tatt as the welcome amenity and a box of chocolates.

The main negative is there is a train line directly behind the hotel and you can hear TGV and other trains throughout the day and night. While they aren't every few minutes, it's enough to wake me form sleep. The property was at 100% so there was no point asking for a different room.

Breakfast became a running joke as we ordered Eggs Benedict and they were deloivered stone cold. We sent them back and they were cold again. We asked the Manager and she arranged for luke warm ones but we started ordering Omlettes instead and had to insist they were hot.

Much of the dining experience is affected by the new and casual staff, like much of the rest of the world at the moment.

The standout is the Martinez Private Beach Club on the Mediterranean. Front row sunbeds are 90 Euros pp/day. We learnt to reserve at time of booking as they often sell out. The club is only available to hotel guests and many some don't know too book and are turned away.

On day one we were told they didn’t have our reservation. I politely, but firmly showed them the emails from the GM and his assistant confirming our sunbeds including the map where they were highlighted. Junior staff member said there was nothing she could do and thankfully her manager came, apologised profusely and upgraded us to a 500 Euro cabana with a bottle of Champers and fruit plate. Good service recovery.

While I do love this property on this occasion it had lost its lustre. As the playground of the rich and famous, there were lots of Gulf groups who can throw money at anything. I suspect this is what happened to our sunbeds.The beach was extremely busy and idespite it's a beautiful location, it's hard to relax amongst hundreds of other people. Some of the other groups begin playing Arabic music on their speakers which us extremely annoying!

I Will return, but probably not during Northern Summer Holidays.

There are also lots of tourists blocking the driveway taking photos of the Arab Supercars which gets annoying when entering and exiting.