L 39;hotel Ritz

[Nathen Paisley]

TheRitz Paris is a hotel in central Paris, overlooking the Place Vendme in the city's 1st arrondissement. A member of The Leading Hotels of the World marketing group, the Ritz Paris is ranked among the most luxurious hotels in the world.

The hotel was founded in 1898 by the Swiss hotelier Csar Ritz in collaboration with the French chef Auguste Escoffier. The hotel was constructed behind the faade of an eighteenth-century townhouse. It was among the first hotels in Europe to provide an en suite bathroom, electricity, and a telephone for each room. It quickly established a reputation for luxury and attracted a clientele that included royalty, politicians, writers, film stars, and singers. Several of its suites are named in honour of famous guests of the hotel including Coco Chanel, and the cocktail lounge Bar Hemingway pays tribute to writer Ernest Hemingway.

Beginning in 2012, the 159-room hotel underwent a four-year, multimillion-euro renovation, reopening on 6 June 2016.[1][2] While the hotel has not applied for the 'Palace' distinction from the French ministry of economy, industry and employment,[3] its Suite Impriale has been listed by the French government as a national monument.

The Place Vendme was started by the Marquis de Louvois and abandoned due to a lack of funds. After Louvois' death the site was bought by king Louis XIV, but finances ran low and the project was bought and completed by John Law.

The faade was designed by the royal architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. In 1854 it was acquired by the Preire brothers, who made it the head office of their Crdit Mobilier financial institution.[citation needed]

In 1888, the Swiss hotelier Csar Ritz and the French chef Auguste Escoffier opened a restaurant in Baden-Baden, and the two were then invited to London by Richard D'Oyly Carte to become the first manager and chef of the Savoy Hotel, positions they held from 1889 until 1897.[5] The Savoy under Ritz was an immediate success, attracting a distinguished and moneyed clientele, headed by the Prince of Wales. In 1897, Ritz and Escoffier were both dismissed from the Savoy, when Ritz was implicated in the disappearance of over 3400 worth of wine and spirits.[6] Before their dismissal, customers at the Savoy had reportedly urged them to open a hotel in Paris.[7] Aided by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle, Ritz purchased the palace and transformed the former Htel de Gramont building into a 210-room hotel.[7] He stated that his purpose for the hotel was to provide his rich clientele with "all the refinement that a prince could desire in his own home."[8] He engaged the architect Charles Mews to update the original 1705 structure.[9] Ritz's innovative standards of hygiene demanded a bathroom for every suite, the maximum possible amount of sunlight, and the minimum of curtains and other hangings.[6] At the same time he furnished the hotel with all the old-fashioned appeal of an English or French gentleman's house, in order to make clients feel at home.[6]

The hotel opened on 1 June 1898 to a "glittering reception".[10][11] Together with the culinary talents of his junior partner Escoffier, Ritz made the hotel synonymous with opulence, service, and fine dining, as embodied in the term "ritzy." It immediately became fashionable with Parisian socialites, hosting many prestigious personalities over the years, such as Marcel Proust, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway,[12] King Edward VII, and the couturier Coco Chanel, who made the Ritz her home for more than thirty years.[13] Many of the suites in the hotel are named after their famous patrons. Hemingway once said, "When in Paris the only reason not to stay at the Ritz is if you can't afford it".[14]

In 1904 and 1908, the Ritz garden caf was painted by the Swiss artist, Pierre-Georges Jeanniot. Proust wrote parts of Remembrance of Things Past here from around 1909.[15] The building was extended in 1910, and Csar Ritz died in 1918, succeeded by his son, Charles Ritz. Queen Marie of Romania stayed at the Ritz Hotel with her two eldest daughters, Elisabeth (of Greece) and Maria (of Yugoslavia) in 1919 while campaigning for Greater Romania at the Paris Peace Conference. Many other prominent royal figures and heads of state slept and dined at the hotel over the years. Edward VII reportedly once got stuck in a too-narrow bathtub with his lover at the hotel.[16] August Escoffier died in 1935.

After the death of Charles Ritz in 1976, the hotel went into a period of slow decline. As it lost its luster, its clientele diminished, and for the first time in its existence, it began to lose money. It was rescued, however, in 1979 by Egyptian businessman, Mohamed Al-Fayed, who purchased the hotel for $20 million and installed a new managing director, Frank Klein. Klein, in turn, put Guy Legay, the former chief of the three-star Ledoyen, in charge of the kitchen.[17] Al-Fayed renovated it completely over several years without stopping its operation; this was achieved by annexing two townhouses, joined by an arcade with many of Paris's leading boutiques.[16] The renovation of the hotel was headed by the architect Bernard Gaucherel from 1980 to 1987. The entire ten-year renovation cost a total of $250 million. The restaurants were given a new look, and a swimming pool, health club, and spas were created in the basement.[17] The Little Bar was renamed the Hemingway Bar. In 1988, the Ritz-Escoffier School of French Gastronomy was established in honour of Auguste Escoffier.[18]

On 1 August 2012, the Ritz closed for the first time in its history for an extensive restoration.[19] It was scheduled to reopen in late 2015, but this date was later changed to March 2016.[20] At 07:00 local time on 19 January 2016, a major fire broke out in the roof of the building. Fifteen fire engines and 60 firefighters responded.[21] The Ritz reopened on 6 June 2016 after a major four-year, multimillion-dollar renovation.[22]

In the 21st century, the Ritz is ranked among the most luxurious hotels in the world and the most expensive in Paris.[15][23][24] It is referred to by some[who?] as the best hotel in Europe and one of the world's most famous hotels.[16][25][26] It is one of "The Leading Hotels of the World".[27]

Ernest Hemingway, who stayed at the hotel many times after World War II, was there when he learned his third wife, Martha Gellhorn, wanted a divorce. He reacted to the news by throwing her photo into a Ritz toilet and then shooting the photo and the toilet with his pistol.[29]

On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales, and Al-Fayed's son Dodi Al-Fayed, and their chauffeur Henri Paul, dined in the Imperial Suite of the hotel before leaving the hotel with bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones, only to have a fatal car accident in the Pont de l'Alma underpass.[31]

The palace and the square are masterpieces of classical architecture from the end of the reign of Louis XIV. The faade was designed by the royal architect Mansart in the late 17th century before the plot was bought and construction began in 1705. The Htel Ritz comprises the Vendme and the Cambon buildings with rooms overlooking the Place Vendme, and, on the opposite side, the hotel's garden.[citation needed]

The Ritz was among the first hotels in Europe to provide a bathroom en suite, a telephone and electricity for each room.[14][33] The Htel Ritz Paris is 4 floors high, including the mansard roof, and as of 2024 offers 140 rooms,[16] a two-Michelin-starred restaurant, two bars and a casual dining restaurant.

In the 1970s a travel publication Holiday wrote, "Practically every royal head of state has snoozed under down quilts on the finest linen sheets, beneath fifteen-foot-high (4.6 m) ceilings in rooms looking out, through huge double windows, on the elegant Place Vendme."[34] Frommer's, which calls the Ritz "Europe's greatest hotel", describes the furnishings as follows: "The public salons are furnished with museum-calibre antiques. Each guest room is uniquely decorated, most with Louis XIV or Louis XV reproductions; all have fine rugs, marble fireplaces, tapestries, brass beds, and more. Ever since Edward VII got stuck in a too-narrow bathtub with his lover, the tubs at the Ritz have been deep and big."[16] The bathrooms contain unique golden swan taps, and peach-coloured towels and robes, believed to be more flattering than white to a woman's complexion.[35]

The Imperial Suite (Suite Impriale) is the finest suite of the hotel and is listed as a National Monument of France in its own right.[45] The Imperial Suite is located on the first floor and consists of two bedrooms, a grand salon, and a dining room. The suite features 6-metre-high (20 ft) ceilings,[46] great chandeliers and windows overlooking the Place Vendme, a massive long gold framed Baroque mirror between the windows, red and gold upholstery and a four-poster bed said to be identical to that in Marie Antoinette's bedroom in the Palace of Versailles.[45] The other bedroom is in the style of Louis XVI, with a baldachin bed and columns.[46] The suite is lavishly decorated in French art, bas-reliefs and 18th-century paneling which is protected under the suite's historic monument status. The bathroom is a former boudoir overlooking the Vendme garden, with 18th-century paneling and a Jacuzzi bath and steam-bath shower, and has its own plasma television and cosmetics fridge.[46] As well as facilities such as a DVD player, high-speed internet, and fax, the suite features a Porsche Design kitchenette with Chroma knives[47] near the salon and has its own small personal wine cellar filled with a variety of French wines.[46] Over the years the suite has hosted some of the world's most prestigious guests from the Shah of Iran to George H. W. Bush. The suite was Hermann Gring's choice of residence during the Second World War and it was where Diana, Princess of Wales, and Dodi Al-Fayed ate their last meal. The World Travel Awards of 2007 selected the Imperial Suite as "Europe's Leading Suite".[48]

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