Issue No. 13

Historic and very very chic
Le Touquet attracted wealthy visitors right
from the get-go. It was the place where jetsetters
went to see and be seen. Hollywood
celebrities, millionaires, politicians, anyone
who was anyone came here to play.
Author Ian Fleming wrote Casino Royale
based on Le Touquet’s casino, where
coincidentally Cole Porter wrote the music
for “Anything Goes” on the casino piano.
Sean Connery came here to sign his first
James Bond contract. Serge Gainsbourg got
his big break singing in a restaurant here.
Winston Churchill spent summers in Le
Touquet and once claimed that so many
members of Parliament were there on
holiday that he might as well move the
business of Government there. Writer HG
Wells eloped to Le Touquet and the Dolly
sisters, vaudeville performers who captured
the hearts of men around the world strolled
along the front with their pet tortoises set
with a pair of four-carat blue diamonds by
Cartier, given to them by millionaire Harry
Selfridge, of London Selfridges fame when
he took them there on holiday.
Of course all these people needed places to
stay and Le Touquet in the early 1900s
boasted the biggest hotel in the world. Le
Royal Picardy had 500 bedrooms and every
one of them had a private bathroom. In 1930
when it opened – that was unheard of. There
were 120 lounges. And, 50 apartments that
were so large that each one of them had its
own swimming pool as well as a kitchen,
and 10 more rooms including for one’s
butler. If you was disgustingly rich in those
days – you stayed at this hotel.
Sadly it is no more but another famous hotel
of the day survived - The Westminster
whose art deco halls are lined with signed
photographs of past guests from Marlene
Dietrich to Roger Moore and Charles de
Gaulle.