The InterContinental Paris Le Grand Hotel is a historic hotel in Paris, France, opened in 1862.
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History
Le Grand Hotel was built by the wealthy brothers Isaac & Émile Pereire and designed by Alfred Armand, who had previously designed the nearby Grand Hôtel du Louvre for them. Construction began in April 1861 and the hotel was inaugurated on May 5, 1862 by Empress Eugenie, wife of Napoleon III, before officially opening on June 30, 1862. The hotel's construction was part of the complete reconstruction of Paris supervised by Baron Haussmann at the time and it was built in the prescribed style, with a mansard roof. Filling an entire triangular city block, the hotel boasted 800 rooms on four floors for guests, with another whole floor for their servants.
The hotel has hosted royalty throughout its long history, including Tsar Nicholas and Tsarina Alexandra, King Edward VII of England and Queen Rania of Jordan. Victor Hugo hosted parties at the Le Grand Hotel and Émile Zola used the hotel for the setting of the death of his tragic character Nana.
In 1869, James Gordon Bennett, Jr., publisher of the Paris Herald, the forerunner of the International Herald Tribune, met with Henry Morton Stanley in the hotel's Imperial Suite to convince him to make his famous journey to Africa in search of David Livingstone.
Creditors of the Péreire brothers seized the hotel in 1878 and in 1887 André Million formed Société du Grand Hôtel to manage Le Grand Hotel, along with the nearby Hotel Meurice and later the Hotel Prince de Galles. The Italian CIGA Hotels chain acquired the three hotels in 1972. CIGA sold the hotels in 1978 for $25 million to Limnico, a Liberia-based subsidiary of Roger Tamraz's First Arabian Corporation. Limnico resold the properties for $55 million just a year later, in October 1979, to Maxwell Joseph's UK-based Grand Metropolitan Hotels. Grand Metropolitan acquired the Inter-Continental Hotels chain in 1981, and placed Le Grand Hotel under their management. The hotel was renovated between 1985-1990 by noted French designer Pierre-Yves Rochon. In 1986, the hotel was renamed Le Grand Hotel Inter-Continental Paris. The hotel closed in December 2001 for another major renovation. Inter-Continental Hotels was reorganized as InterContinental Hotels Group while the hotel was closed, and it reopened on April 5, 2003 with its name modified slightly, InterContinental Paris Le Grand Hotel. InterContinental sold the hotel to Qatar-based Constellation Hotels in 2014 for EUR330 million, though InterContinental continues to manage the property.
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Café de la Paix
The renowned Café de la Paix has been located on the ground floor of the hotel since it opened.
In popular culture
Roman Polanski set much of his 1988 film Frantic, starring Harrison Ford, at the hotel. While the interiors were all filmed at soundstages, numerous exteriors were shot outside the hotel.
Notes
External links
- Official website
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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