Paris Ritz

Ritz Paris
Location within 1st arrondissement of Paris
General information
Type	Hotel
Address	15 Place Vendôme
Town or city	1st arrondissement, Paris
Country	France
Coordinates	48°52′04″N 2°19′43″E / 48.86778°N 2.32861°E / 48.86778; 2.32861
Opened	1 June 1898
Renovated	1987, 2012–16
Owner	Mohamed Al-Fayed
Design and construction
Architect	Jules Hardouin Mansart (1705) Charles Mewès (1897–98) Bernard Gaucherel (1980–87)
Website
www.ritzparis.com

The Ritz Paris is a hotel in central Paris, in the 1st arrondissement. It overlooks the octagonal border of the Place Vendôme at number 15. The hotel is ranked among the most luxurious hotels in the world and is a member of "The Leading Hotels of the World". The Ritz Paris reopened on 6 June 2016 after a major four-year, multimillion-dollar renovation.

The hotel, which today has 159 rooms, was founded in 1898 by the Swiss hotelier, César Ritz, in collaboration with the French chef, Auguste Escoffier. The new hotel was constructed behind the façade of an 18th-century town house, overlooking one of Paris's central squares. It was among the first hotels in Europe to provide a bathroom en suite, a telephone and electricity for each room. It quickly established a reputation for luxury, with clients including 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 Ernest Hemingway. One of the bars of the hotel, Bar Hemingway, is devoted to Hemingway. L'Espadon is a world-renowned restaurant, attracting aspiring chefs from all over the world who come to learn at the adjacent Ritz-Escoffier School. The grandest suite of the hotel, called the Suite Impériale, has been listed by the French government as a national monument in its own right.

During the Second World War, the hotel was taken over by the occupying Germans as the local headquarters of the Luftwaffe. After the death in 1976 of Ritz's son, Charles, the last members of the Ritz family to own the hotel sold it to the Egyptian businessman Mohamed Al-Fayed in 1979. On 31 August 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales dined in the hotel's Imperial Suite, shortly before her death in a fatal car crash.

The hotel has been entirely renovated in order to help it attain the 'Palace' distinction, which is a title bestowed by the French ministry of economy, industry and employment. It was closed from 1 August 2012 and reopened in June 2016. Because of its status as a symbol of high society and luxury, the hotel has 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).