Heading to the Fashionable De Grisogono Party at the Hotel du Cap Antibes? Don’t Mind the VIP Dog Cemetery

The De Grisogono party in Cannes is an annual star-studded event taking place during the Cannes Film Festival. Supermodels and ‘A-listers’ travel to Antibes to celebrate and check out the exquisite De Grisogono diamond jewellery at the Hotel du Cap. The annual gala event is never short of things to impress you, not least with its ‘invitation only’ price list – some eager socialites are happy to pay up to £12,000 for the ticket.

But Hotel du Cap has more to offer than luxury entertainment, unlimited champagne, and diamonds. It is also a place to reflect on more serious matters, namely, on life and death, eternal friendship and loyalty of our pet animals. Located next to the manicured rose garden, the 100 square meters’ dog cemetery hosts 19 dog’s graves with named tombstones.

Hotel du Cap map. Dog cemetery – no 6

Legend says that the dog cemetery was ‘founded’ in 1900, when the dog of one of the regular guests of the Hotel du Cap, Lady Onslow, died during her stay. Knowing how closely attached Lady Onslow was to her dog, the owner of the hotel at that period, -after having had a little coffin built and always eager to please his clients- suggested that the little animal be buried next to the rose garden, a favourite spot where Lady Onslow and her guests often had tea and passed the time doing their reading and sewing.

It is not entirely clear though who were the owners of the dogs buried in the Hotel du Cap cemetery as only few of the grave stones feature owners’ names. It is also unclear how one can secure the place at this very exclusive dog cementery affectionately referred to as ‘Lady Onslow’s Garden’ as the last dog was buried in 1969, according to tombstones.