A family atmosphere 

In the 1930’s, Juan-les-Pins is already a seaside resort in vogue, with its hotels, leisure and bustling evenings. Very popular among Americans, eccentric billionaires, jazz stars and pin-up, this small seaside village invents the bikini and launches each year the Summer season collections.

• 1931 : Alexandre Barache, a young businessman of Russian origin, draws inspiration from this avant-garde and cool style and he entrusted Georges Diganski, renowned architect in those days, to plan the construction of the Hotel Juana.

The Aga Khan, the Duke of Windsor and Winston Churchill are among its prestigious clients.

In the 1960’s, it is time for the artists to take delight in Juana. Painters such as Marc Chagall, Francis Picabia and the poet Jacques Prévert build up its legend. The most famous ceramicists from Vallauris and André Villers, the photographer, participate to its decoration.

• 1984 : The Juana Hotel becomes the reference for gastronomy on the Côte d’Azur. It is the first hotel in France to be awarded 2 stars in the Michelin Guide, thanks to Alain Ducasse who was then 28 years old.
• 2001 : with no heir to take over, the Barrache brothers put the Juana Hotel up for sale.
• 2006 : Marianne Estène-Chauvin, owner of the Hotel Belles Rives, another small Art Deco luxury hotel located at the beginning of Cap d’Antibes and founded in 1929 by her grand-parents, Boma and Simone Estène, purchases the emblematic Juana Hotel.     

A jazzy atmosphere

1929 - Accompagné de sa femme Simone, issue d’une dynastie d’hôteliers Antiboise, Boma Estène succède aux Fitzgerald et métamorphose la Villa Saint-Louis en une grande bâtisse destinée aux séjours de villégiature.

It is in Juan-Les-Pins, between the casino and the cape, that lies the origin of the expression "jazz-age". Jazz music started off in 1920, first with its lightsome tunes, in the small seaside resort : Charleston and ragtime are soon followed by blues and negro spiritual.

In 1950 Juan-les-Pins becomes the worldwide centre of the New Orleans Revival and launches the era of Sydney Bechet. Each year during the month of July, since 1960, the Juana Hotel is the backstage of the Antibes–Juan les Pins Jazz Festival. Musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Ray Charles live there and it also happens that the jazzmen would have a jam session in a café to end the evening.

Nowadays, the Jazz Festival in Juan-les-Pins is held in July and offers a modern and eclectic programme, with names such as Diana Krall, Sting, Lionel Ritchie, Marcus Miller, Stevie Wonder or Melodie Gardot.