The ‘White Lotus’ is filming the five-star dream on the French Riviera. Here’s what it’s really like
By Francesca Street, CNN
Côte d’Azur, France (CNN) — Kat Jamieson slid open the doors to her poolside hotel room in Saint-Tropez and was greeted with an unexpected sight: cameras and a film crew surrounding actor Laura Dern, who was holding court in front of the rippling blue water.
“She was wearing this fabulous Missoni caftan,” Jamieson tells CNN Travel.
Jamieson couldn’t believe it. Not only was she witnessing an Oscar-winning actor at work, but she’d also bought the exact same Missoni caftan the day before, in the hotel’s on-site boutique.
“I was going to plan on wearing it that day, and then I saw her wearing it by the pool, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, we’re twins.’”
If the idea of a hotel gift store selling a $1,000 designer pool throwover feels surreal — let alone an actor casually filming a poolside scene as guests watch on — you’re obviously not familiar with the world of HBO’s “The White Lotus.”
Jamieson’s Laura Dern moment occurred while she was spending a week at Château de la Messardière, a 19th-century palatial home turned sprawling Côte d’Azur resort, run by exclusive French hotel company Airelles. The spectacular property is doubling up this summer as a functioning real-life hotel for the 1% and a principal filming location for the next season of the Emmy-winning, 1%-satirizing TV show, “The White Lotus.”
Impossibly chic meets intimidatingly luxe
Filming is currently underway for the fourth season of the show, which previously immortalized such impossibly chic, intimidatingly luxe properties as the Four Seasons’ San Domenico Palace in Taormina, Sicily and Four Seasons Resort Koh Samui in Thailand.
Rumors swirled for much of last year about season four’s potential filming location — only the Alps were ruled out because creator Mike White hates the cold. When White zeroed in on the French Riviera, there were reports of him staying at the picturesque Hotel Negresco on the promenade in Nice, France. Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat, a Four Seasons property in the exclusive Riviera community of Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, was repeatedly suggested as a potential player — given its grandeur and the franchise’s previous preference for Four Seasons properties.
Eventually, earlier this year, Airelles’ Château de la Messardière was confirmed as this season’s principal filming location. Cannes’ Art Deco Hotel Martinez was also nailed down, with HBO announcing the Cannes Film Festival will serve as the starry backdrop to this season. Reports suggest the Mandarin Oriental Lutetia in Paris is also set to star in the series, but HBO has maintained the action will remain set on the Riviera. (HBO is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN.)
When the news broke about Château de la Messardière, Connecticut-based Jamieson already had her stay booked. As a longtime fan of the show, she was delighted. The fashion influencer, traveling with her investor relations adviser husband, assumed filming would be finished before they checked in. She never expected a scene to play out during her stay.
“They didn’t contact us, and I don’t know if it’s because they didn’t know this exact schedule,” she says of the hotel. “I know they were reshooting some of the scenes because they had an actress change-up, so maybe it was just luck that we got to see the reshoots.”
The change-up in question was Laura Dern replacing originally cast British star Helena Bonham Carter. The frenzied reporting around this news is illustrative of the buzz that continues to surround “The White Lotus,” which has settled on a perfectly enticing formula: an intriguing cast of industry stalwarts and up-and-comers, super fancy hotels, out-of-touch rich folks versus downtrodden hotel staff — oh, and murder.
Jamieson and her husband didn’t figure out too much about potential plot lines for season four, even though they “got to see the whole scene transpire around the pool.”
The filming was visible from their hotel room terrace.
“We could see the entire filming taking place and Laura Dern in her pool scene from our private patio,” says Jamieson.
They weren’t asked to sign NDAs, but the crew did ask that active filming not be recorded. Photos and videos were permitted when the cameras weren’t rolling. All Jamieson could pick up plot-wise was some classic “White Lotus”-style “tension” in the poolside scene.
“There seemed to be a tense conversation that Laura was having at the pool with the other actor. They were very deep in convo,” she says. “They filmed for probably about five hours by the pool, but we were able to walk through the whole set in between takes, and it was very exciting.”
Some hotel guests might complain about a pool being closed during their stay, especially when they’re paying a big price — room rates fluctuate seasonally, with suites in peak season around $3,000-$6,000 a night. However, there are actually three large outdoor pools at Château de la Messardière, as well as one indoor pool. When CNN Travel visited in May, each pool looked stunning in its own right. One being off limits due to Hollywood stars didn’t seem like a major hardship.
“We didn’t mind at all,” says Jamieson. “It was just fun to be able to observe such a unique show that we’ve been watching for years. My husband actually asked if he could be an extra in the show. They said, ‘Sorry, we’ve already cast a bunch of French people.’ But it was still just so fun to be in the mix and observe.”
As the set was prepped for filming, the couple spotted the hotel’s luxurious orange Airelles pool pillows being replaced on the sun loungers with equally luxurious, blue White Lotus-branded pillows.
“They also laid out a bunch of protective carpet and everything like that, because they have those gorgeous pavements, and the grass is pristine, and so they kept it pristine, still,” adds Jamieson.
Spying on filming
The hilltop Château de la Messardière is spread over roughly 32 acres, full of hidden, verdant corners that feel private and serene — think poolside terraces and individual picnic tables crowded with cushions, looking over Saint-Tropez’s rolling hills and the hotel’s flower-filled gardens. Visible in the distance is the Bay of Saint-Tropez.
During CNN’s visit, the Orient Express Corinthian — the world’s largest sailing yacht, whose rooms go for roughly $5,300 a night — was in port for its inaugural sailing and visible from the resort. Tucked away in the hotel’s beautiful grounds are trampolines, tennis courts and an outdoor gym. Jamieson suggests the sheer size, sprawl and serenity of the property meant some hotel guests may have been entirely unaware that filming was even occurring.
“They did a nice job of being really quiet and respectful,” she says. “Because the hotel, again, didn’t announce anything — you probably wouldn’t have known if you weren’t invested or watching the show. We just found it so thrilling, and we felt like we were so lucky to even get to see a little part.”
According to Jamieson, “The White Lotus” crew also filmed at Saint-Tropez’s Pampelonne Bay, known for its pristine golden sand, warm azure-blue waters and rows of exclusive beach clubs. Most of Saint-Tropez’s hotels are dotted around the village and surrounding hills, all about a 15-minute-drive to the waterfront, but most have satellite beach clubs at Pampelonne. The town’s luxury hotels ferry guests to the beach in style: Château de la Messardière transports residents to its beach club, Jardin Tropeziana, via Rolls-Royce.
“We asked our driver one night, and he said he was able to be an extra in the show, so he loved that. He was really excited,” recalls Jamieson. “He’s like, ‘I didn’t say anything, but they filmed me opening the door and driving the Rolls-Royce.’ So that’s really fun. I’m looking forward to seeing him.”
Pampelonne Bay beach clubs also include celebrity hot spot Le Club 55 — the original 1950s venue in Saint-Tropez, which has its origins in the filming of the 1956 French classic “And God Created Women.” Today, sun loungers at Saint-Tropez’s beach clubs are priced by the hour, by row — according to their proximity to the Mediterranean Sea.
On the day CNN Travel visited Pampelonne, most guests were sipping rosé and lounging rather than actually swimming. Bucking the trend by descending into the water offers dreamy swimming conditions — crystal-clear, warm water with a row of superyachts bobbing in the distance.
The only negative? The intrusive thought that on “The White Lotus,” this is exactly the moment the body would wash up on the sand.
Guests mixing with celebrities
“The White Lotus” was conceived by director White during the pandemic as a way of utilizing the claustrophobia of a Covid “bubble” to create must-watch TV. In the first season — filmed at the Four Seasons’ Maui at Wailea, Hawaii — White, his crew and his cast of actors including Jennifer Coolidge and Sydney Sweeney took over the hotel, empty of paying guests due to the pandemic, and filmed entirely within the confines of the resort.
Several years later, this model remains the show’s modus operandi, though with pandemic restrictions gone, later seasons have seen an uptick in scenes filmed outside hotel grounds. The third season, for example, was filmed across several Thailand resorts and included numerous out-property scenes.
Even if the show’ has expanded its horizons, “White Lotus” actors still enjoy an extended stay at the luxurious hotels where they’re filming, creating an unusual dynamic. Season three actor Jason Isaacs told Vulture the experience is “a cross between summer camp and ‘Lord of the Flies’ but in a gilded cage.” His co-star Aimee Lou Wood told Variety that living and working on set is “basically a reality TV show.”
During Jamieson’s stay at Château de la Messardière, she slowly realized several of her fellow hotel guests were actually “White Lotus” cast and crew.
“We did get to see some of the actors off-duty one night, and they were all laughing and having fun, because a lot of them are in their 20s. So that was really cool to see. It seems like the cast really does mesh and get along, and they’re just all having a blast,” she says.
“They were mingling with the guests, kind of in an unassuming manner. Some of these actors are a little bit more up-and-coming, so I actually probably was sitting next to them and didn’t even realize it at the pool or at breakfast.”
The meta nature of “The White Lotus” is part of its appeal. Jamieson was delighted by the idea that Laura Dern’s fictional hotel resident probably picked up her Missoni caftan in the hotel gift store, exactly the way she did.
“As a guest, you go into the boutique, try a couple things you gravitate towards. I gravitated towards the caftan, and it really was a natural move for her to wear that,” she says. “It really shows that they were inspired by the setting, because it also was this season’s Missoni. And Missoni and Saint-Tropez is iconic.”
One evening, Jamieson says she ended up lying poolside with the show’s director of photography.
“She was so excited to chat with my husband and I, because she said, ‘Finally, new people. I’m getting bored of the same people, because we literally see each other every day, we work together every day.’ She was so sweet, just chatting to us about our life and our travels … I guess the Airelles property was really their home base for a whole month, that’s a dream to be able to stay there for a month.”
Hotel living
For hotels, hosting a film crew for a month is no mean feat. Many of the resorts on the French Riviera are closed during the winter months, but behind-the-scenes factors make filming during the off-season tricky — not least because the sun-drenched look is central to the show’s brand. TV viewers want to see Laura Dern wafting by a sunny pool in that Missoni caftan, not huddled for warmth in a sweater.
This filming situation is also complicated by the fact that a host of real-life wealthy guests see the French Riviera as their summer home-away-from-home. Karin Perrault, guest relations manager at five-star Hotel Byblos — a Saint-Tropez institution where Mick and Bianca Jagger celebrated their wedding in 1971 — says Byblos has regular guests who stay for up to two months in the summertime, “even a little bit more.”
Sitting by Byblos’ pool (unlike Château de la Messardière, it only has one, thought the hotel’s also home to the famous Caves du Roy nightclub, where the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Lady Gaga have been spotted on the dance floor), Perrault tells CNN Travel that Byblos gets frequent filming requests but turns them down.
“They need certain dates, which are difficult for us to manage and welcome back our return guests,” she says. “We cannot say ‘yes.’”
Anecdotally, it seems Château de la Messardière may have had to do some juggling to accommodate this year’s production. Irish couple Gabby Seputyte and Ben Hauer were booked to stay in the hotel in late April. Speaking to CNN Travel in May over Aperol spritzes and rosé on the terrace of the hotel’s Bar 1904 (the house wine is Château d’Estoublon ‘Roseblood’ co-owned by Airelles owner Stéphane Courbit and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy), the couple recalls receiving an unexpected email ahead of their stay:
“Our booking got canceled,” says Hauer, explaining an exact reason wasn’t given but they suspected it was due to a mix of bad April weather and “the filming of the show.”
The Dublin-based couple was offered a stay at the hotel’s boutique sister spot, Airelles Pan Deï Palais in the center of Saint-Tropez, or an upgrade and rebook for the end of May. They went for the latter, and like Jamieson, were absolutely delighted by the “White Lotus” link — even if filming potentially disrupted their vacation plans.
“I’ve been a fan for a long time,” says Seputyte.
“I was glad I booked this hotel before it was even announced, because it’s probably going to be impossible to get a booking now, because it was already popular,” says Hauer. “Look at any of the other hotels that they filmed in for the other seasons, they quadrupled in popularity after the show…”
Five-star luxury
Much of the humor in “The White Lotus” comes from the rich guests’ entitlement, outrageous requests and out-of-touch perspectives on reality.
In the first season, there’s Jake Lacy’s character Shane, who becomes obsessed with the fact he’s missed out on the hotel’s coveted “Pineapple Suite” on his honeymoon. His obsession turns into a bitter feud with the hotel manager which spirals into comic tragedy.
While reporting in the French Riviera, CNN Travel overheard several conversations perfectly suited to the show. Take the Byblos residents casually discussing upcoming helicopter rides above Saint-Tropez — or a guest at chic new Saint-Tropez addition AREV, explaining to a hotel employee in painstaking detail exactly why he enjoyed the hotel’s Japanese toilets, while the waiter stood politely, listening diligently and nodding.
Meanwhile, at the Four Seasons Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat’s dreamy Club Dauphin — a restaurant built into the cliffs overlooking Cap-Ferrat’s infinity pool — two women ordered, then promptly rejected, glasses of local Provençal wine because “2022 was a terrible year for rosé.” (Cue this reporter frantically Googling “what went wrong with 2022 rosé?” under the table while continuing to happily sip said rosé.)
Many of the region’s hotels — including Château de la Messardière, Hotel Martinez and Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat — recently scored a coveted spot on France’s official “Palace” list reserved for hospitality levels that exceed even those of a traditional five-star property.
The service at these ultra-luxury properties is on another level. It’s common, for example, for guests to receive multiple gifts over the course of their stay. CNN Travel spotted sportswear-clad guests enjoying the extensive breakfast buffet at Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat carrying Four Seasons-branded water bottles inside large, gifted straw beach bags. The bags are given their own designated seats at the terrace tables.
And these hotels aren’t giving out cheap freebies — think luxurious pajamas, scented candles, leather pouches, and glamorous straw hats. When Hauer proposed to Seputyte during their stay at Château de la Messardière, he says they returned to a hotel room filled with heart-shaped balloons, a bottle of 2015 Veuve Clicquot champagne, a cake and a framed photo of them post-proposal, snapped by staff that very lunchtime. He hadn’t given the hotel a heads-up, and couldn’t quite believe it.
The five-star Riviera lifestyle is an easy one to adapt to: suites with private pools, delicious fresh seafood, and beautiful views from secluded terraces. Everything is so stunning, and everything is so seamless. Consequently, when something doesn’t go entirely to plan, the mishap stands out far more than they would anywhere else.
On CNN Travel’s trip there were a few moments that prompted the “What would Shane from season one say?” train of thought — from getting dropped off by a hotel chauffeur at a public beach parking lot, a 25 minute hike away from the intended swanky Saint-Tropez hotel beach club destination, to arriving solo in a new hotel room only to be inexplicably greeted with a “Happy Wedding Anniversary” chocolate cake.
Mike White is an expert at finding humor in these moments, mining each chosen destination for its specific idiosyncrasies. Series producer David Bernad has hinted that the writer settled on the French Riviera setting after “a really specific experience with a waiter and a maître d’, and it was the stereotype. It was a very funny moment.”
Celebrity and fame
This upcoming season also promises to focus specifically on celebrity and fame, a perfect match for the French Riviera. Saint-Tropez became the center of French filmmaking in the 1950s and 1960s, morphing from a sleepy fishing village to a global celebrity hot spot. VIP guests are commonplace in the region, and according to Byblos guest relations manager Karin Perrault, every hotel in the area is used to accommodating stars and their specific needs.
“We have our security agents always walking around,” she says. “The Saint-Tropez authority, they work very hard also to make this place feel secure … It’s a small village, but you have beautiful properties, so it’s a big investment, and everything works in harmony.”
While stars vacationing on the Riviera usually want to remain discreet, during the Cannes Film Festival, their presence is thrust under the spotlight. Cannes’ Hotel Martinez is confirmed by HBO to be playing the fictional “White Lotus Cannes” and in real life, the Martinez serves as a major hub for celebrities during the annual movie showcase, thanks to its proximity to Cannes’ famous Boulevard de la Croisette.
CNN’s Thomas Page, who has covered the Cannes Film Festival since 2017, calls the Martinez the “perfect choice” for a season filmed around the festival. He points to the Martinez’s famous staircase, with its “beautiful geometry,” as an obvious filming location. Page also suggests the Cannes beach clubs, which host private after-parties that run into the early hours, could provide the perfect stage for some typical White Lotus theatrics.
“You are feet away from the sea, on the fringe of those parties,” he says. “It’s exactly the kind of setting where events could spill over; things could spell doom for someone, potentially.”
Meanwhile, Château de la Messardière’s confirmed fictional name “White Lotus du Cap” suggests the resort could be playing a fictionalized version of Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat or, perhaps more likely, Antibes’ Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc where celebrities often stay during the festival and which Vanity Fair recently dubbed “the glamorous power center of Cannes.”
With the film festival serving as backdrop, unconfirmed reports suggest the series could revolve around two rival film crews, one staying at the “White Lotus Cannes,” and the other at the “White Lotus du Cap.” Filmmakers were recently spotted recreating the Cannes atmosphere post-festival, in late May.
This recent Cannes filming coincided with US real estate developer and film enthusiast Michael Banovac’s French Riviera vacation. To his excitement, while dining al fresco at Cannes’ Ristorante Federal, Banovac found himself sitting next to season four actor Steve Coogan.
“We just struck up a conversation, and I was asking him a little bit about ‘White Lotus,’” Banovac tells CNN Travel.
“He was filming this past week on a yacht in the Côte d’Azur near Cannes. They’re going to be integrating between Saint-Tropez, Cannes, a very little bit of Paris … And then they’re going to have a little bit of filming in Monaco, I don’t know where. But that’s kind of what I gleaned.”
Coogan was tight-lipped on exact plot points, but Banovac was still excited to get a bit of insight into the show’s direction.
“I’ve seen all the seasons, and I’ve been to the majority of the hotels, except for the ones in Thailand,” he says. “The settings are so lavish and elegant.”
Banovac had also been expecting the Four Seasons Grand-Hotel du Cap-Ferrat to play a starring role and has his own theories on why the production went in a different direction with Château de la Messardière.
“Mike White needed a place that they could rent out, have some privacy, and also get a lot of local extras involved in the hotel, and I think that’s why they chose that hotel in Saint-Tropez which is a little more remote,” he suggests.
During his 10 days touring the French Riviera, Banovac says he constantly found himself in conversations about the show. During CNN’s South of France soujourn, the name was also a constant refrain across breezy hotel terraces and sun-kissed beaches.
Banovac suggests the Côte d’Azur is the perfect fit for the upcoming series.
“The main theme, from what I’m gathering, is fame and relevance,” he says, suggesting the hotels in the region, being famous in their own right, are the perfect fit. “When they’re at these very extravagant hotels, I think it’s going to tie into beauty, extravagance, opulence, and also relevance.”
The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.
