A murder in a Riviera palace, the summer of the first paid holidays, and a five-star cast: “L’Été 36” soared to the top of Netflix France upon its release. And as is often the case with a hit series, one question keeps coming up: where was it filmed, and in which hotel? The answer leads straight to one of the most iconic palaces on the Côte d’Azur, the Hôtel Negresco, in Nice.
We separate fact from film set: what was actually filmed in the Nice palace, what was reconstructed in a studio, and why the Negresco remains, in its own right, a legendary address to discover.
- 🎬 The series · “L’Été 36”, a French historical fresco (TF1 then Netflix), which reached No. 1 on Netflix France · six episodes, a murder in a Riviera palace in 1936.
- 🍸 The real set · only the Art Deco bar of the Hôtel Negresco, in Nice, was filmed in the actual palace.
- 🏛️ The rest · the fictional palace “Le Riviera” was rebuilt in a studio, the Villa Masséna lent its facade, and the Nice of 1936 was recreated using CGI.
- 📍 The filming · Nice, Grasse, and Sospel (Alpes-Maritimes), in the spring of 2025.
- 👑 The Negresco · 1913 Belle Époque palace, 130 rooms and suites, a collection of nearly 6,000 works of art, Michelin-starred restaurant Le Chantecler.
“L’Été 36”, the series that set Netflix on fire
“L’Été 36” is a French historical fresco that captivated audiences as soon as it was released. Initially broadcast on TF1 in the spring of 2026, the six-episode mini-series arrived on Netflix in France on 1 June 2026, where it quickly took the top spot in the rankings. We are in the summer of 1936: with the first paid holidays of the Popular Front, modest employees discovered the Côte d’Azur for the first time and crossed paths with the high bourgeoisie on the pebble beaches.
The destiny of four women with nothing in common·a bourgeois woman, a unionised worker, the palace housekeeper, and a police auxiliary·is tied to a murder that occurred in a fictional luxury hotel, “Le Riviera”. Featuring a top-tier cast, Julie de Bona, Sofia Essaïdi, Nolwenn Leroy, Constance Gay, alongside Miou-Miou, François-Xavier Demaison, and Pascal Elbé, the series blends investigation, social drama, and the glamour of the Roaring Twenties on the Riviera.
Where was “L’Été 36” filmed?
This is where the film set holds a few surprises. In the real Hôtel Negresco, only the bar scenes were filmed, in the Art Deco bar that remains faithful to its original spirit. For everything else, the team opted for reconstruction: the interiors of the fictional palace “Le Riviera”·corridors, halls, and rooms·were entirely rebuilt in a studio in the Paris region, while the Nice of the 1930s was recreated using CGI, across nearly three hundred special effects shots.
On location in the Alpes-Maritimes, filming took place in the spring of 2025 in Nice, Grasse, and Sospel. In Nice, it was the Villa Masséna, a Belle Époque jewel on the Promenade des Anglais, that lent its monumental facade to represent the entrance of the palace. The Negresco, for its part, brings to the series what a studio cannot manufacture: the aura of a real Riviera palace, the very one that makes the viewer dream.
The Negresco, the legendary palace that inspired the series
On the Promenade des Anglais, the Negresco has reigned over the Baie des Anges since 1913. Commissioned by Henri Negresco and designed by the architect Édouard-Jean Niermans, this Belle Époque palace with its famous pink dome has been classified as a historical monument since 2003. Behind its iconic facade lie 130 rooms and suites, but above all, an atmosphere that is uniquely its own, halfway between a museum and an aristocratic family home.
For the Negresco houses a private collection of nearly 6,000 works of art, from the lobby to the fifth floor, covering five centuries of creation, from a portrait of Louis XIV to a colourful Nana by Niki de Saint Phalle. At the heart of the palace, the Salon Royal displays its monumental glass roof and its Baccarat chandelier with 16,309 crystals, linked to an order from Tsar Nicholas II. A detail worth correcting in passing: this dome, long attributed to Gustave Eiffel, is in reality the work of Niermans · the Eiffel legend is a nice story, but a story nonetheless.
Le Chantecler, the palace’s Michelin-starred restaurant
The Negresco also cultivates a great dining experience, Le Chantecler, awarded a star in the Michelin Guide. At the helm since 2018, chef Virginie Basselot, Meilleur Ouvrier de France, creates contemporary Mediterranean cuisine in a setting of period wood panelling and tapestries. The palace also features a chic brasserie, La Rotonde, and its bar, the very one that seduced the “L’Été 36” team for its intact Roaring Twenties lines.
Staying at the Negresco, in Nice
It is impossible to sleep in the fictional palace from the series · but you can very well unpack your bags in the one that inspired it. Facing the Mediterranean, the Negresco offers rooms and suites that are all different, decorated like so many paintings, from Louis XV style to more contemporary ambiances. An address to experience at least once, to walk in a setting more real than life, between the Promenade des Anglais and the old town of Nice. The Negresco is also featured in our selection of the most beautiful palaces on the Côte d’Azur.
Our take
“L’Été 36” reminds us of an obvious fact: on the Côte d’Azur, palaces are not just places to stay, they are characters in their own right. The Negresco only lent its bar to the fiction, but it is indeed its soul·that of an immutable palace standing facing the sea for over a century·that permeates the entire series. Proof that, sometimes, the most beautiful story is not the one written for the screen, but the one that already exists, very real, at 37 Promenade des Anglais.
