Summer 36 Netflix Cast: Who Plays Blanche, Eugénie, Giulia and Léonie?

The Summer ’36 (Original title: L’Été 36) Netflix cast is led by Julie de Bona, Sofia Essaïdi, Nolwenn Leroy and Constance Gay as four women whose lives become connected by the murder of prosecutor Adrien Jacquart at a luxury hotel in Nice. The six-episode French limited series combines a period drama with a crowded murder mystery set during the first summer of paid holidays for French workers.

Because the story introduces several families, secret relationships and overlapping motives in its opening episode, it can be difficult to remember how everyone is connected. This cast and character guide explains the four central women, the investigators, the victim and the families surrounding the Riviera hotel without revealing the final solution.

For more stylish period mysteries, see our guides to the Seven Dials Netflix cast and Enola Holmes 3 cast and story.

Julie de Bona as Blanche Ackerman

Julie de Bona plays Blanche Ackerman, the daughter of industrialist Henri Pontavice-Caron. Blanche arrives at the Riviera hotel as part of the wealthy class whose summer traditions are being disrupted by the arrival of working families newly able to take paid holidays.

Blanche is married to Édouard Ackerman and has a daughter, Angèle, but she is secretly involved with prosecutor Adrien Jacquart. That affair gives her an immediate connection to the victim and a reason to fear what the investigation might expose. She had been considering leaving her husband, which means Jacquart’s death threatens both her private plans and her public reputation.

De Bona makes Blanche appear composed even when her situation is unstable. The character has grown up around wealth and influence, but those advantages do not protect her from scandal. Her connection to Eugénie adds another layer: the two women are sisters, although their lives have taken sharply different paths.

Sofia Essaïdi as Eugénie Berthier

Sofia Essaïdi plays Eugénie Berthier, a unionized factory worker visiting Nice with her husband Jean and their son Louis. Eugénie represents the working families experiencing paid vacation for the first time, placing her on the opposite side of the class divide from the guests who consider the Riviera their private playground.

Her past links her directly to both the wealthy Pontavice-Caron family and Adrien Jacquart. Henri is her estranged father, making Blanche her sister. Jacquart was once Eugénie’s fiancé, and his sudden interest in Louis raises a painful question about the boy’s paternity. These revelations mean Eugénie enters the murder investigation while trying to protect the family she built away from the people who once controlled her future.

Essaïdi gives Eugénie a directness that helps ground the complicated plot. The character is politically aware, protective of workers and unwilling to accept wealth as proof of moral superiority. Her presence makes the murder mystery inseparable from the social changes unfolding in France in 1936.

Nolwenn Leroy as Giulia Vincent

Nolwenn Leroy plays Giulia Vincent, the head housekeeper at the Riviera hotel. Giulia understands the building better than most guests and employees, which places her close to the crime scene and the private behavior of the wealthy visitors.

She also has a serious financial problem. Giulia loses a large amount of money to Jacquart in a poker game, and he threatens to expose the debt to hotel management. Desperate to recover, she makes decisions that could make her look guilty even when they do not prove she committed murder.

Giulia is the half-sister of Léonie Morel, although their relationship is strained. Their father is on death row, and the sisters respond very differently to his situation. Giulia’s guarded attitude makes her one of the harder characters to read during the early episodes.

Constance Gay as Léonie Morel

Constance Gay plays Léonie Morel, a young police assistant trying to prove herself in a profession dominated by men. Her father, Pierre Farget, is awaiting execution for a murder he says he did not commit. Léonie hopes prosecutor Jacquart will reopen the case, giving her a personal reason to seek him out before his death.

After Jacquart is killed, Léonie becomes part of Commissioner Raven’s investigation. Her position is complicated because she has information and family connections she cannot easily disclose. She wants to use police work to save her father, yet she also risks becoming entangled in the same secrecy she is supposed to uncover.

Gay’s character gives the series an investigative perspective while remaining emotionally tied to the suspects. Léonie is not watching the mystery from a safe distance. The outcome could determine whether her father lives or dies.

François-Xavier Demaison as Commissioner Raven

François-Xavier Demaison plays Commissioner Raven, the senior investigator assigned to the Riviera murder. Raven approaches the hotel as a crime scene filled with people who have money, status and reasons to conceal the truth. He also has to decide how much responsibility to give Léonie, whose instincts are useful but whose personal connections may compromise the case.

Raven serves as the audience’s formal guide through the evidence. While the four women carry the emotional story, his questioning helps organize the timeline, test alibis and expose inconsistencies.

Arnaud Binard as Adrien Jacquart

Arnaud Binard plays prosecutor Adrien Jacquart, the murder victim whose relationships connect much of the ensemble. Before his death, Jacquart had been involved with Blanche, shared a past with Eugénie, held Giulia’s gambling debt over her and represented Léonie’s best hope of reopening her father’s case.

The show gradually reveals that these are not his only secrets. Jacquart’s professional authority allowed him to influence lives far beyond the hotel, and several characters had reason to fear what he knew or resent what he had done. Although he dies early, he remains central to every episode.

Miou-Miou and Sam Karmann as Marthe and Henri Pontavice-Caron

Miou-Miou plays Marthe Pontavice-Caron, while Sam Karmann plays Henri, the industrialist at the head of the family. Henri’s declining health pushes him to think about inheritance and the future of his business. His attempt to reconnect with Eugénie and recognize Louis as an heir destabilizes relationships that have been hidden for years.

Marthe is part of the family system that shaped Blanche and excluded Eugénie. The older generation’s choices explain why the two sisters occupy such different social worlds despite sharing the same father.

Simon Ehrlacher as Jean Berthier

Simon Ehrlacher plays Jean, Eugénie’s husband and Louis’s father. Jean is proud of the family they have built, but Jacquart’s claims about Louis threaten that stability. The murder investigation therefore forces Jean to confront questions that are emotional rather than merely criminal.

His role also shows how the secrets of wealthy families can damage people outside their circle. Jean arrives in Nice to enjoy a historic holiday and quickly finds himself surrounded by questions about class, legitimacy and parenthood.

Pascal Elbé as Raoul Delaunay

Pascal Elbé plays Raoul Delaunay, a Riviera guest and associate of Jacquart. Delaunay is one of the men whose influence and behavior become increasingly important as the investigation expands beyond the first murder. He represents the protection that wealthy and well-connected men can offer one another.

Assaad Bouab as Joseph Neuville

Assaad Bouab plays Joseph Neuville, the new owner of the Riviera hotel. Ownership places him in the middle of the clash between old luxury, changing social expectations and the practical need to keep the hotel functioning during a murder investigation. His relationship to the staff and guests gives him access to information from both sides of the class divide.

The Ackerman and Berthier Families

Clément Aubert plays Édouard Ackerman, Blanche’s husband, while Victoria Eber plays their daughter Angèle. Their presence turns Blanche’s affair into a family crisis rather than a secret involving only two adults.

Jean-Baptiste Blanc plays Louis, the teenage son of Eugénie and Jean Berthier. Louis becomes important because Jacquart claims a biological connection to him, while Henri sees him as a possible heir. Antoine Simony plays Gabriel Berthier, Jean’s brother, adding another relationship to the working-class family at the center of the hotel’s social tension.

The Riviera Hotel Staff

Patrick Ridremont plays hotel director Edgar Girault, who must manage the scandal and protect the Riviera’s reputation. Ken Eind plays Félix, the bartender, and Salomé Richard plays Odette, a maid. The staff members notice movements and conversations that guests assume are private, making them essential to the mystery.

The hotel setting works like a contained stage. Wealthy guests, workers, police and employees repeatedly cross paths, while private rooms and service corridors create opportunities for secrets, theft and violence.

Why the Four Women Are the Real Center of Summer 36

Although the series begins with Jacquart’s murder, its structure belongs to Blanche, Eugénie, Giulia and Léonie. Each woman enters the story from a different social position: wealthy daughter, factory worker, hotel employee and police assistant. Their connections reveal that class boundaries are less secure than the Riviera’s elite want to believe.

The murder forces them to look beyond rivalry and suspicion. Each has something to lose, and each understands a different part of the world surrounding Jacquart. Their eventual cooperation gives the series its emotional direction even as Commissioner Raven follows the official evidence.

Where Have You Seen the Summer 36 Cast Before?

Julie de Bona and Sofia Essaïdi previously appeared in Women at War, another French historical drama centered on women navigating a period of national change. Constance Gay is familiar to mystery viewers from Unit 42. Nolwenn Leroy is widely known in France as a singer, making Giulia one of her most prominent dramatic roles.

François-Xavier Demaison has worked across French film, television and comedy, while Miou-Miou is a veteran of French cinema. Assaad Bouab may be recognizable internationally from Call My Agent! and The Pursuit of Love.

Viewers interested in more ensemble-driven period stories can also read our A Woman of Substance 2026 cast guide, while fans of coastal drama may enjoy our High Tides Netflix review.

Is Summer 36 Based on a True Story?

The murder and central characters are fictional, but the social backdrop is historical. The story is set in 1936, when paid annual leave allowed many French workers to take holidays for the first time. The arrival of working-class vacationers on the Riviera creates the class tension that shapes the series.

By placing a murder at a luxury hotel during that change, Summer ’36 turns a historical milestone into a pressure point. The established elite are forced to share spaces they once treated as exclusively their own, and hidden family relationships make the division between classes even more complicated.