Background and history
The Place Vendôme 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.[5]
Lot number 15, Place Vendôme site was purchased in 1705 by Antoine Bitaut de Vaillé, advisor to the Grand Council, nominee of Jeanne Baillet de La Cour, widow of Nicolas Baillet de La Cour and acting on behalf of his daughter Anne. Jeanne bequeathed it in 1710 to her daughter, Anne, wife of Duke Antoine de Gramont. Anne, a chambermaid to the first doctor of Louis XIV, Daquin, then to Louis Sanguin, Marquis de Livry, married the Duke Antoine Charles IV of Gramont who left his name to the hôtel particulier Hôtel de Gramont which was built on the site. In 1721, the Duchesse de Gramont, who had become a widow, sold it to Daniel François de Gelas of Voisin (1686–1762), knight of Amber and count of Lautrec, who lived there for thirty years. It was sold in 1750 to Charles de la Villette, treasurer of the extraordinary wars, who rented it to the Prince of Andorra, Spanish ambassador. From 1775 it belonged to Claude Darras, secretary of the king, and then was occupied from 1788 by the Direction of the liquidation of the public debt and then from 1792 by the Mortgage credit.[6]
The façade was designed by the royal architect Jules Hardouin-Mansart. In 1854 it was acquired by the Péreire brothers, who made it the head office of their bank, the Crédit Mobilier.[7]
In 1888, the Swiss hotelier César 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.[8] 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. Before their dismissal, customers at the Savoy had reportedly urged them to open a hotel in Paris.[9] Aided by Alexandre Marnier-Lapostolle, Ritz purchased the palace and transformed the former Hôtel de Gramont building into a 210-room hotel.[9] 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."[10] He engaged the architect Charles Mewès to update the original 1705 structure.[11]
The hotel opened on 1 June 1898 to a "glittering reception".[13][14] 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,[15] King Edward VII, and the couturier Coco Chanel, who made the Ritz her home for more than thirty years.[16] 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".[17]
In 1904 and 1908, the Ritz garden café was painted by the Swiss artist, Pierre-Georges Jeanniot. Proust wrote parts of Remembrance of Things Past here from around 1909.[18] The building was extended in 1910, and César 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.
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.[19] 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. 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.[19] The Little Bar was renamed the Hemingway Bar. In 1988, the Ritz-Escoffier School of French Gastronomy was established in honour of Auguste Escoffier.
On 1 August 2012, the Ritz closed for the first time in its history for an extensive restoration.[20] It was scheduled to reopen in late 2015, but this date was later changed to March 2016.[21] 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.[22] The Ritz reopened on 6 June 2016 after a major four-year, multimillion-dollar renovation.[23]
In the 21st century, the Ritz is ranked among the most luxurious hotels in the world and the most expensive in Paris.[18][24][25] It has been as the "best hotel in Europe" and one of the world's most famous hotels.[26][27] It is one of "The Leading Hotels of the World".[28]
