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MOSCOW - For almost a century, the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat in southern France has played host to the likes of Tsar Nicholas II, Winston Churchill, Aristotle Onassis and Pablo Picasso, providing unbridled luxury and a view to die for, at a cost that can take your breath away.
So perhaps it was just a matter of time before a member of Russia's new global aristocracy - the oligarchs - liked it so much that he bought it.
That is exactly what Russian-born tycoon Leonard Blavatnik has done by delving into his pockets to find £215 million ($592 million) to snap up the legendary hotel with another piece of French history, the equally exclusive Hotel de Vendome in central Paris.
The irony of the purchase will not be lost on Blavatnik, a self-made oligarch estimated to be worth £4.7 billion, who made his fortune by buying up industrial assets cheaply after the fall of the Soviet Union.
He will be only too aware that Russia's doomed imperial family liked to kick back at the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat accompanied by a generation of aristocrats that was destined to be destroyed by the communists.
Blavatnik, 49, fled the USSR in 1978 without a rouble to his name. The billionaire now has stakes in oil giant TNK-BP, in the world's largest aluminium company, and industries ranging from coalmines in Kazakhstan to chemicals and telecommunications.
A United States passport holder, he spends much of his time in London, where he bought an imposing property in Kensington Palace Gardens for £41 million in 2004.
Built in 1908, the Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat is a magnificent white palace on a headland near Nice that juts into the Mediterranean.
The hotel's guest book over the years reads like a who's who of Europe's royal families, scions, and celebrities, such as Somerset Maugham, Charlie Chaplin and Paul McCartney.
The hotel is not shy about trading on its star-studded guest list; its website boasts of how the late King Leopold II of Belgium called the area "paradise on earth" and that the hotel's swimming instructor has tutored "Picasso as well as both Paul McCartney's and Frank Sinatra's children".
"Today's elite still finds beauty and utmost discretion at our property," it says.
Such exclusivity does not come cheap; during high season, rooms start at £480 a night, rising to a heart-stopping £2525.
The five-star Hotel de Vendome is of the same calibre.
Located on one of the French capital's most elegant squares, the hotel is a favourite resting place for the rich and famous and its facade and roof are classified as historic monuments by the French state.
The Hotel de Vendome's room rate is also wallet-emptying; in high season with rooms starting at £660 rising to £1525.
Owning world-famous hotels is a growing trend among Russia's rich. Last year the oligarch of oligarchs, Roman Abramovich, bought the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, between Cannes and Nice.
- INDEPENDENT
