The exterior of the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. In the official film adaptation of Casino Royale, James Bond and his HM treasury liaison Vesper Lynd stay at the Hotel Splendide whilst on a mission to bankrupt the terrorist financier Le Chiffre, who is attempting to recoup financial losses at a high-stakes poker tournament at Casino Royale in Montenegro. īoth Bond and Contessa Teresa di Vicenzo stay at there. The Casino, the public gardens and the two main hotels were refurbished and Paris jewellers and couturiers were given rent-free sites on which to establish branches.
Encouraged by the post-war revival of Brighton and Nice, in 1950 Royale-les-Eaux was identified as a potential source of revenue by a Paris syndicate which invested funds on behalf of exiled Vichyites. Royale's renaissance came after the Second World War. The town thereafter survived on seaside holidaymakers in the summer and its small fishing fleet in the winter, as well as 'the crumbs which fell to its elegantly dilapidated Casino from the table at Le Touquet'. Since the Victorian era the once popular coastal town had fallen on hard times, losing business to the towns of Le Touquet and Deauville. The Hotel Splendide is one of two main hotels in the fictional French seaside resort of Royale-les-Eaux, the other being the Hermitage.
