I once wrote about the history of Place Vendôme, focusing mostly on the statues that stood in the square over the years and their bad luck. But Place Vendôme has another monument, the one that really made it famous: the Hôtel Ritz, a name that became a byword for uncompromising luxury.
The history of the Hôtel Ritz
It all started with a scandal in London. In 1897, the manager of the Savoy Hotel, César Ritz (1850-1918), and his partner, the chef Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935), were fired after being suspected of stealing 3,400 pounds’ worth of alcohol (a fortune back then). But the two men, who had made the Savoy the favorite haunt of English high society, didn’t stay unemployed for long. Ritz and Escoffier decided to move from London to Paris and open the most luxurious hotel the world had ever seen. Naturally, Place Vendôme, already a symbol of Parisian luxury, was the obvious place for a hotel like that. After a long search, Ritz managed to buy the Hôtel de Lauzun, whose entrance is at number 15, and after renovations he opened his luxury hotel on June 1, 1898, naming it after himself.
From the day it opened, the hotel was synonymous with elegance and innovation. For example, Ritz decided to put a bathroom in every one of the hotel’s 210 rooms, an indulgent novelty in a city like Paris (jokes about French hygiene in 3…2…1…). In the 1920s, the hotel became the center of social life for all of the famous rich people in Paris, and more than once the bathtubs were filled with… champagne. The writer F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940) made the hotel a kind of headquarters, while Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), who was poor at the time, could only afford one drink a week at the hotel bar. Even so, he didn’t give up on the experience and became a regular at the bar, which is named after him today (by the way, women weren’t allowed into this bar until 1936).
One of the hotel’s most eccentric guests was Berry Wall (1860-1940), an American millionaire who dined at the hotel restaurant with his chow chow, which he dressed in black satin socks and a Charvet collar (you can still buy those at the Charvet shop at number 28 on the square). Other celebrities who lived at the hotel included the famous writer Marcel Proust (1871-1922), who stayed in a relatively modest room, and the fashion designer Coco Chanel (1883-1971), whose suite, where she slept until the day she died, still bears her name.
The Hôtel Ritz today
In 1979, the hotel was sold to the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed (1929-2023). After the purchase, he carried out an extensive renovation and opened a cooking school named after Escoffier, dedicated to French gastronomy, as well as the largest pool in Paris, which recalls the pools you once found in Roman villas. The hotel has starred in quite a few films and stories, but today most people remember it for its connection to the tragic death of Princess Diana (1961-1997) and her partner Dodi Al-Fayed (1955-1997), the owner’s son. This is where the two of them set out in 1997 on their last journey, which ended in a car crash near the Pont de l’Alma.
In 2012, the hotel closed for renovations and upgrades (among other things, a summer restaurant with a glass roof that can easily be opened on a nice day was planned). The hotel was supposed to reopen in the summer of 2014, but because of the scale of the work, the reopening was pushed back to early 2015 and then again to 2016. In the end, about 300 million euros over budget, the hotel reopened, and you’re welcome to take a look.
So what’s in the new hotel?
- An underground parking garage, so celebrities can go straight up to their rooms without passing through the lobby.
- Lavish, luxurious rooms starting at 1,200 euros a night and going up to about 12,000 euros a night for the suites.
- A lavish, state-of-the-art Chanel spa that will help you live to 100 with ease (unless you drop dead on the spot while trying to pay for it, of course).
- Three gourmet restaurants, run by some of the most famous chefs in France.
- And of course, the best location in Paris.
