Hôtel Ritz Paris
From ArticleWorld
The Hotel Ritz, Paris, located in the heart of Paris near the Louvre and the Museé d'Orsay, is the most glamorous and the most colorful of all the Ritz hotels in the world. With a history that dates back more than 100 years, the Hotel is well known for welcoming such feted guests as King Edward VII of Great Britain. It has suites named in honor of famous personages. So there is a Marcel Proust suite, a Duke of Windsor suite, a suite named after Coco Chanel, and even a Hemingway Bar. In fact Coco Chanel had a permanent suite of three rooms, at the Ritz, which she had turned into her home and resided there for a period of 37 years. These rooms overlooked the palace Vendome and are now the most expensive suite of rooms in the Hotel, comparable to the costliest in the world. The hotel has 107 rooms and 55 suites and is renowned for its unique service.
History
The Hotel first opened its doors to the public on 1st June, 1898. It was an old 18th century private mansion that was converted into a hotel. Jules Hardouin. Mansart of the ‘mansard’ roof fame was engaged to design the façade of the hotel. The owner of the Hotel was Cesar Ritz, a Swiss Hotelier, who went on to design and create other Ritz hotels all over the world.
In the year 1979, the Hotel was bought by the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed. He made extensive changes and renovated the Hotel, even adding the Ritz-Escoffier School of French Gastronomy to the hotel in the year 1988.
Accolades
- The Hotel Ritz is the favorite watering hole of the rich and famous of the world and its mixture of state of the art comforts with old-world traditions make sure that the Ritz retains its exclusiveness.
- The owner Cesar Ritz along with culinary wizard Auguste Escoffier brought the service and the opulence of the hotel to such a height that it became the only Hotel in Paris to get the Imperial Mark.
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, Marcel Proust, Edward VII of U.K., Rudolf Valentino, Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo were a few famous people whose names became associated with the name of Hotel Ritz.