Lionel – Gardener and Caretaker at the Hotel Beau Site.

Meet Lionel who works at the Hotel Beau Site right in the middle of Cap d’Antibes.

Lionel has been the gardener and Caretaker at this pretty little Cap d’Antibes Hotel for  23 years.

I bumped into him this morning while he was outside the hotel watering the flowers. Even though we have essentially been neighbors for over 9 years today was the first time that we had ever met.

Where do you live?

I have a small villa on the premises where I live all year round. There are many buildings here which need to be looked after and maintained throughout  the year so that’s my job. I also take care of the gardens and the flowers, at the moment, as you can see I am watering the flowers.

Have you always lived in the South of France?

No I haven’t. Before I came here I was living in the North of France near Valenciennes, it’s about 60km from Lille.

What brought you to the Cap?

“I came to the South of France for the Sun and the good life which is what I have here”.

“When I first arrived in 1994 it was very different here. The hotel had many Russian guests back then. It was before the time that Russians started to buy Villas here. We had Boris Yeltzins daughter stay with us a few times and Abramovich. I shook his hand once.  They would come and stay here when the Hotel du Cap closed for the winter. Now we don’t have so many Russian guests. Most of them own their own villas now”.

Lionel and I agreed to meet up again in the next few weeks for a full interview so that he could tell me more about his life here and how it has changed during the last 23 years.

Hotel Beau Site is at 141 Blvd JF Kennedy, 06160.

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