Paris Ritz

“When I dream of afterlife in heaven,” Hemingway once wrote, “the action always takes place in the Paris Ritz”. The Ritz, located in the 1st arrondissement, is in fact two edifices. The one that faces the Place Vendôme was originally the residence of Armand Louis de Gontaut, the Duc de Lauzun, who was one of the commanders of the French troops at Yorktown during the Revolutionary War. The other half is a building that backs up against it on the Rue Cambon. Residents included Hemingway & couturier Coco Chanel; Hermann Göring lived in the Ritz during the occupation of Paris. Proust wrote parts of Remembrance of Things Past there. George Widener, the son of P.A.B. Widener of Lynnewood Hall in Elkins Park, PA, had been staying there with his family before boarding the RMS Titanic at Cherbourg (P.A.B. held part ownership in the White Star Line).

On August 30, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales & Egyptian owner, Mohamed Al-Fayed’s son, Dodi, dined in the hotel’s Imperial Suite, which rents for $17,770 a night, before their fatal car crash.

http://www.vanityfair.com/society/2012/07/paris-ritz-history-france