Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris
The Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris is a luxury hotel located at 37 avenue Hoche, 8th arrondissement, Paris, France. The hotel has 149 rooms with 61 suites and 3 luxury apartments that have been recently refurbished by the designer Philippe Starck. Two of its restaurants have a Michelin star: "La Cuisine" serves classic French cuisine for breakfast, lunch and dinner, "Il Carpaccio" serves Italian cuisine for lunch and dinner only and "Le Bar Long" serves lighter dishes all day from 8am to 2am with also a full bar available.
Notable guests have included Dwight David Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Robert De Niro, Charles Aznavour, Michel Polnareff, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Ray Charles and Celine Dion.
The hotel was originally designed by architect Louis Duhayon, and opened in 1928. Le Royal Monceau was founded by Pierre Bermond and André Junot who at the time owned 30% of French luxury hotels like the Miramar in Cannes and Biarritz, the Carlton in Paris, the hotels in Evian and the California in Paris. From its opening it became the meeting point of many artists and celebrities, such as Maurice Chevalier, Walt Disney, Coco Chanel, Hemingway, Josephine Baker, Joseph Kessel and contemporary stars such as Michel Polnareff and Robert De Niro.
In 1947, Ho Chi Minh stayed there for seven weeks during the Fontainebleau conference that established the new relationship between France and Vietnam. In May 1948 the negotiations that led to the signature of the Israeli Declaration of Independence by David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir took place in its lounges.
In 1978, Doctor Osmane Aïdi, then owner of the building, created Le Royal Monceau Group that comprised Le Royal Monceau, the Hôtel Vernet in Paris, The Elysée Palace in Nice, the Hôtel Miramar Crouesty in Brittany and L’Ours Blanc in l’Alpe d’Huez. In 2007 French businessman Alexandre Allard put an end to the litigation between the shareholders of Le Royal Monceau and Qatari Diar became the new owner of the place after buying it out for the price of 250 million euros. Since 2008 it has been managed by the Raffles Group, an Asian resort company.
In June 2008, the contents of the hotel were put up for auction. This sale, carried out by Cornette de Saint-Cyr, yielded 3,3 million euros. On June 26, 2008, A “Demolition Party” was organized in order to celebrate the beginning of the renovation work ; 1500 people turned up and, led all along by construction workers, watched live performances by various artists (fluorescent wood installation in the lobby, screening of a movie directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, live production of a short movie directed by Olivier Dahan, gigs…) The renovation works started the next day under the direction of renowned French designer, Philippe Starck.
Le Royal Monceau today
Le Royal Monceau reopened in October 2010, and the luxury hotel now includes 149 bedrooms - instead of 260 - of which 61 suites and 3 prestige apartments (located in the attached building, 41 avenue Hoche, now part of the luxury hotel), a 1500 square meters spa with a 26 meters long pool.
The hotel includes an art gallery, an art bookstore, a screening room with a digital cinema platform, as well as an art concierge.[1]
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Coordinates: 48°52′33″N 2°18′01″E / 48.875696°N 2.300354°E
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