CANNES, France — Anchored in the Bay of Cannes throughout this film festival, the new Orient Express Corinthian has been the subject of much chatter from the shore.
With its three towering masts and silhouette that recalls the great ocean liners of yesteryear, it’s more than a mysterious superyacht bringing VIPs back and forth to film parties. (Though initial speculation was that it belonged to Jeff Bezos.)
An Accor group vessel spanning 722 feet, the Corinthian is less a ship than a floating exercise in world-building — part Art Deco fantasy, part contemporary hospitality project, part cinematic set piece — and backed by a strategic partnership with LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton since 2024.
It’s part of the pair’s plans to create a luxury universe spanning trains, hotels and yachts and revive the legendary name made famous by Agatha Christie’s novel.
It’s also the first official yacht partner of the film festival, and French through and through.
The ship was built on France’s Atlantic coast, it was christened by a bottle of LVMH-owned Veuve Clicquot, and interiors were overseen by artistic director Maxime d’Angeac, who set out to reconcile the historic codes of the original Orient Express with an entirely modern vessel.
“The main challenge of the Orient Express Corinthian project was to combine the Orient Express that is the train — so heritage — and the Orient Express Corinthian, that is modernity,” said interior architect Camille Thirion during a tour of the ship. “We have never seen a yacht like this before.”
Inside the reception area.
Alice Mesguich / Courtesy of Orient Express Corinthian
The references to the original train are constant but rarely literal. Throughout the yacht, details from historic Orient Express interiors reappear as design inspirations, such as train windows interpreted as lighting fixtures in suites; historical samples of pressed velvet recreated for deep seating, and small touches such as retractable footrests designed to resemble historical luggage trunks.
Elsewhere, the famous curves of the Normandie ocean liner staircase return in polished handrails and sweeping architectural lines, while wave patterns are repeated in plush carpets.
“We wanted the lobby to feel like the living room of the ship,” Thirion said, standing beneath columns and marble surfaces in the yacht’s central lounge, filled with deep couches and a bar stacked with cozy muffins and cookies. “Not just a simple bar with stools.”
That sense of residential intimacy indicates the ship’s ambition of luxury designed to feel like home.
Despite the scale of the vessel, the team was keen to avoid the visual excess often associated with ultra-luxury cruising. There is no bling, bells or whistles here. Instead, the design is soft, warm and woody with curved furniture, softened edges, velvet upholstery, rope detailing and reflective surfaces intended to pull the movement of the sea into the rooms themselves.
“We wanted everything to be nice to touch,” Thirion said. “We created rounded forms everywhere. Your eye can move around the shapes — it creates shadows, reflections, distortion.”
Even practical constraints became part of the decorative language. Structural support beams deep within the lower decks were disguised as stylized Art Deco columns clad in carved marble. “We tried to blur your sensation and forget where the structure is,” she said.
The yacht incorporates 26 different types of marble alongside custom woodwork, crystal sconces, embroidered panels and bespoke furniture designed specifically for the project. Nearly every visible surface was made by the team, rather than sourced.
The LVMH touch is evident throughout the interiors. Guerlain oversees the spa, while fabrics from Loro Piana appear across seating and outdoor furniture, including top deck loungers.
Tableware was developed with Limoges porcelain house Haviland, while historical French luxury label Christofle, now owned by Chalhoub Group, which has strong ties to LVMH, created a bespoke design for the ship. The Art Deco style silver pieces will not be commercially available until 2030.
In one suite, bead embroidery has been applied directly onto thin sheets of wood using computer-assisted drilling techniques. Elsewhere, molded glass panels evoke moonlight reflecting on the ocean surface. “We tried to be as poetic as we could,” Thirion said.
During the Cannes Film Festival, the yacht’s relationship to film feels particularly pronounced. A private cinema onboard features deep red velvet seating modeled after the original Orient Express train chairs, while a recording studio and performance spaces were conceived as creative retreats for artists and musicians to privatize the ship.
“It would be nice for artists to be able to come and have a week of retreat and record albums,” Thirion said.
Inside La Terrasse restaurant.
At moments the yacht feels closer to production design than traditional hospitality. Curtains billowing across outdoor terraces were inspired by Baz Luhrmann’s version of “The Great Gatsby,” which premiered in Cannes in 2013, and in a nod to gardens on historical ships, which could not be included for weight reasons, flora and fauna are carved into the walls.
“When you arrive to your suite in the day and return after dinner at night, we wanted you to discover something different each time,” she said.
That layering of atmosphere extends even to the staff uniforms, which draw inspiration from the golden age of ocean liners. In total there are 80 historical references for the uniforms, including colors inspired by formal French railway networks at the turn of the 20th century.
Staff also have day and night looks, including Belle Époque dressing gown styles.
Inside a suite on the Corinthian.
Yet for all its nostalgia, the Corinthian is also positioned as a technological statement of prowess. The vessel operates using three towering SolidSail masts equipped with rigid carbon-fiber sails capable of propelling the yacht primarily through wind power. Engines powered by liquefied natural gas act as backup rather than primary propulsion.
On its maiden voyage from Marseille to Cannes, once the sails were up, it was just propelled by wind and not using engines.
That contrast — historic glamour paired with future-facing engineering — increasingly defines luxury hospitality’s bringing back old school style and what staff called “slow travel.”
For a certain tier of luxury traveler, the appeal of slow travel lies partly in withdrawal. The Corinthian’s agenda avoids destinations filled to the brim by over-tourism and packed itineraries with privacy, distance and the rare commodity of uninterrupted time. It’s a carefully controlled world insulated from crowds.
There’s even a library filled with books handpicked by d’Angeac, so guests can pick up a tome and actually have time to read. There’s no better way to enjoy that Loro Piana lounger.
“We wanted the guest experience to be rich,” Thirion said. “You lay down, you sit up, you look somewhere else — and you discover another detail.”
The concept revives and elevates a particularly French idea of travel — not efficiency, but atmosphere.
The Orient Express’ partnership with the Cannes Film Festival will continue in 2027, with the launch of the Olympian, which will be present during the 80th anniversary edition.
