Hôtel Ritz Paris
The Ritz Paris is a hotel in central Paris, overlooking the Place Vendôme 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.
"Hôtel Ritz" redirects here. For other hotels, see Hotel Ritz. For the hotel chain, see Ritz-Carlton. For other uses, see Ritz (disambiguation).Ritz Paris
Hotel
France
1 June 1898
1987, 2012–16
TBC
Jules Hardouin-Mansart (1705)
Charles Mewès (1897–98)
Bernard Gaucherel (1980–87)
The hotel was founded in 1898 by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz in collaboration with the French chef Auguste Escoffier. The hotel was constructed behind the façade 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 Impériale has been listed by the French government as a national monument.
Because of its status as a symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel is featured in many notable works of fiction, including novels (F. Scott Fitzgerald's Tender Is the Night and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises), a play (Noël Coward's play Semi-Monde), and films (Billy Wilder's 1957 comedy Love in the Afternoon and William Wyler's 1966 comedy How to Steal a Million).
Noteworthy historical occurrences[edit]
During the summer of 1940, the Luftwaffe, the air forces of Nazi Germany during the Second World War, set up their headquarters at the Ritz, with their chief Hermann Göring.[28]
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 22 April 1955, the Duke and Duchess of Parma hosted a coming out ball for their daughter, Princess Cécile Marie of Bourbon-Parma, at the hotel.[30]
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]
On 10 January 2018, five men stole millions of euros worth of jewelry from within the hotel; three were subsequently caught before escaping.[32]
Pool and spa[edit]
The Ritz Health Club contains a swimming pool, the largest in all of the Parisian hotel palaces and billed by the Ritz as "the finest indoor pool in Paris".[51][61] The pool's construction was inspired by the baths of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome and features reliefs on the ceilings and jet streams and underwater sounds in the pool. The health club boasts of 1,700 square metres (18,000 sq ft) of "hi-tech facilities" and offers a range of health treatments, from reflexology to Swedish massage and shiatsu.[62]