It’s official: The White Lotus season four will be set during the Cannes Film Festival, and will be centred on two hotels on the French Riviera: Saint-Tropez’s lavish Château de La Messardière, as the White Lotus du Cap, and Cannes’s iconic Art Deco gem and historic celebrity magnet Hôtel Martinez, as the White Lotus Cannes. Like many who’ve covered the film festival over the years, I’ve been lucky enough to stay at the latter, and the experience, in all honesty, is totally unlike anything else. As filming kicks off, here are the eight things I hope the new season captures about staying at the Martinez over Cannes.

It’s almost impossible to get inside

The very first time I arrived in Cannes to cover the festival, back in 2023, I remember my taxi pulling up to the Martinez and my jaw immediately hitting the floor. At any given time, there are about a hundred people gathered outside—fans, locals, curious onlookers—jostling behind extensive barriers. Add to that the rabid paparazzi, flocks of security guards, and an endless procession of stars, and it’s utter pandemonium.

A word to the wise: arriving in a hotel car helps, and once you’ve checked in and popped out, it’s much, much harder to get back inside if a) you’re not a celebrity and b) are returning on foot. I had to repeatedly show the security team my room key and wait until they communicated over various walkie-talkies before I was let through, and even then, I was only allowed to enter via the service entrance, not the main door.

It features one of the starriest hotel lobbies in the world

Under the giant chandelier and weaving around the extravagant floral arrangements, you’ll find the great and the good of Hollywood and beyond: Alia Bhatt, Simone Ashley, Jane Fonda, Elle Fanning, Gillian Anderson, Viola Davis, Cara Delevingne, and co filing in and out as you try to get onto the WiFi and store your suitcase. Will the next White Lotus season be packed with cameos? Given that filming will take place here during the festival, I’d say basically by default, yes.

The tiny lifts make for hilarious meet-cutes

Being a historic hotel, the Martinez’s lifts are genuinely minuscule, meaning you’re extremely likely to find yourself stuffed inside one like a sardine, trying desperately not to step on Angelina Jolie’s dress or make eye contact with Adrien Brody and Georgina Chapman. It also means the queues for getting into the lifts are extremely long, and even longer in the evenings when most people are wearing sizable ballgowns which significantly reduce capacity. I hope at least one awkward White Lotus meet-cute takes place inside these comically teeny elevators.

The stairs exist primarily for photo shoots

As I discovered once I gave up on waiting for the lifts to take me up to my room, no one at the Martinez uses the stairs—they are, above all, a backdrop for the “I’ve arrived in Cannes” photo shoots of influencers, models, and movie stars alike. If you find yourself with no other option but to take the stairs, beware that you’ll be pausing at every floor, waiting for shots to be taken, and then dodging photographers, publicists, and assistants, and apologizing repeatedly while you do it.

The balconies are for putting on a show for the paparazzi

Another popular location for celebrity photo shoots, your balcony is very much not for having a smoke/sipping a coffee/stepping onto in the morning, bleary-eyed and half-dressed. No, this is where you go to greet your adoring public and show off your most red carpet-worthy outfit.

The breakfast buffet is supremely surreal

A big part of every season of The White Lotus is the breakfast buffet, and the Martinez’s daily extravaganza is a corker. Naturally, you won’t find the biggest celebrities here—they’re safely cloistered away in their rooms—but you might, say, bump into Jeanne Damas at the salad bar or Ikram Abdi at the juice station. Best of all, it’s common to see seas of people in sequined cocktail dresses and six-inch heels at 8 a.m., nimbly tucking into their avocado toast. Cannes—there’s nowhere else quite like it.

The rooftop offers some of the best views in Cannes

Commandeered by Chopard, one of the film festival’s key commercial partners, for the duration of the festival, the Martinez’s penthouse becomes a buzzy rooftop gathering place, stuffed full of industry insiders by day, taking meetings, nibbling on canapés, and soaking up the sun. By afternoon, everyone rushes off to the roof’s glam suites to get their hair and make-up done, and then returns for post-premiere parties. The rosy sunsets and sweeping vistas, all rolling hills and twinkling lights set against the clear water, are justifiably legendary, meaning it should, in theory, be the perfect spot for a big White Lotus party.

The beach club is its crowning glory

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I can picture White Lotus newcomer Helena Bonham Carter sipping many an Aperol on the striped sun loungers of the Martinez’s glamorous beach club. Then, in the evenings, the space transforms into a glittering party venue, with the little vintage pier a popular spot for more impromptu photo shoots. Is this where The White Lotus’s bodies will wash up? Stay tuned to find out.