This is the old Ritz Hotel before renovation.
The hotel, which has now 142 rooms, was founded by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz in collaboration with the Chef Auguste Escoffier in 1898. The Ritz quickly established a reputation for luxury, with well-known personalities: politicians, movie stars, singers, etc. Several of its suites are named in honor of prestigious guests of the hotel, for example the stylist Coco Chanel, who lived in the hotel until she died, or the writer Ernest Hemingway, who often came to the Ritz . In the early years, the Ritz welcomed prestigious personalities such as Jean Cocteau, Colette, Paul Morand and the writer Marcel Proust, who settled in a private lounge in the hotel. It was partly transformed into a Red Cross military hospital during World War I.
During the Roaring Twenties, the attraction of Europe and the Prohibition prompted Americans to come to the old continent. In 1921, Charles Ritz decided to isolate a space on the ground floor where drinks were served: "Café Parisien", a bar reserved only for men, welcomed personalities such as Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote the novel "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz" or Ernest Hemingway. Charles Ritz's wife inviting herself insolently, convinces the hotel to open a second bar in front of the first one in 1926, the "Café des dames" renamed "Petit Bar" in 1934.
In order to be completely renovated and to qualify for the officially labeled "Palace", the hotel is closed on August, 1st 2012. The work, estimated at Euros140 million, was due to be completed in the summer of 2014 but took delay. In addition, on the morning of January 19, 2016, the hotel under construction suffered a major fire on the seventh and last floor, which damaged the roof. The reopening takes place only on June 6, 2016. The number of rooms goes from 159 to 142, all different, and the hotel takes the opportunity to create new spaces: the winter lounge, the Proust lounge and the Petit Ritz. A brewery replacing the Ritz Club, a summer restaurant under a movable canopy, the extension of the ballroom, the integration of advanced technologies in the rooms, the now automated drum door...
The famous Chef Auguste Escoffier is also at the origin of the fame of the restaurant "l'Espadon".
International Engineering and parisian office Be2i completed the renovations of the hotel from 1979 to 2006, then the former partner of Be2i, the architect Atelier Cos gave the plans of the new Ritz as it can be discovered since June 2016, place Vendôme in Paris.
Cinema:
1951: in the film "An American in Paris", Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) goes with Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) in the hotel room of the latter, at the Hotel Ritz.
1957: in Billy Wilder's "Love in the Afternoon", it is at the Ritz that Franck Flannagan (Gary Cooper) receives his Parisian lovers, among whom the young cellist Audrey Hepburn, slips out of the window.
2006: in the film of Ron Howard "Da Vinci Code", Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) takes a shower in a room and looks at an embroidered towel "Hotel Ritz Paris"; the hero of the film leaves the hotel, crosses the Place Vendôme, to go to the Louvre.
During the Roaring Twenties, the attraction of Europe and the Prohibition prompted Americans to come to the old continent. In 1921, Charles Ritz decided to isolate a space on the ground floor where drinks were served: "Café Parisien", a bar reserved only for men, welcomed personalities such as Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald who wrote the novel "A Diamond as Big as the Ritz" or Ernest Hemingway. Charles Ritz's wife inviting herself insolently, convinces the hotel to open a second bar in front of the first one in 1926, the "Café des dames" renamed "Petit Bar" in 1934.
In order to be completely renovated and to qualify for the officially labeled "Palace", the hotel is closed on August, 1st 2012. The work, estimated at Euros140 million, was due to be completed in the summer of 2014 but took delay. In addition, on the morning of January 19, 2016, the hotel under construction suffered a major fire on the seventh and last floor, which damaged the roof. The reopening takes place only on June 6, 2016. The number of rooms goes from 159 to 142, all different, and the hotel takes the opportunity to create new spaces: the winter lounge, the Proust lounge and the Petit Ritz. A brewery replacing the Ritz Club, a summer restaurant under a movable canopy, the extension of the ballroom, the integration of advanced technologies in the rooms, the now automated drum door...
The famous Chef Auguste Escoffier is also at the origin of the fame of the restaurant "l'Espadon".
International Engineering and parisian office Be2i completed the renovations of the hotel from 1979 to 2006, then the former partner of Be2i, the architect Atelier Cos gave the plans of the new Ritz as it can be discovered since June 2016, place Vendôme in Paris.
Cinema:
1951: in the film "An American in Paris", Jerry Mulligan (Gene Kelly) goes with Milo Roberts (Nina Foch) in the hotel room of the latter, at the Hotel Ritz.
1957: in Billy Wilder's "Love in the Afternoon", it is at the Ritz that Franck Flannagan (Gary Cooper) receives his Parisian lovers, among whom the young cellist Audrey Hepburn, slips out of the window.
2006: in the film of Ron Howard "Da Vinci Code", Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) takes a shower in a room and looks at an embroidered towel "Hotel Ritz Paris"; the hero of the film leaves the hotel, crosses the Place Vendôme, to go to the Louvre.
Rue Cambon, december 2015
