AIR
The cocktail bar too became fabled and a firm favourite with Ernest Hemingway
make it into the history books. The hotel restaurant was run by César Ritz’s compatriot, August Escoffier, and very quickly became synonymous with haute cuisine. Today, the namesake cooking school is known across the world. The cocktail bar too became fabled and a firm favourite with Ernest Hemingway. Its legendary barman was Frank Meier, author of cult book The Artistry of Mixing Drinks. Serving drinks to the likes of Roosevelt, George Bernard Shaw and a millionand-one aristocrats, Meier was the ultimate host, expert barman and – so he claimed – inventor of the sidecar cocktail. Today, cocktails at the Ritz remain an experience, with offerings such as the $1,500 Sidecar, a refreshing beverage crafted from bottles of fine Champagne and Cognac that were hidden from the Nazi’s throughout the occupation. The antics at the Ritz during World War II were often shocking – Adolf Hitler’s second-in-command, drug addicted, cross-dressing Hermann Göring lived in its grandest suite. When the Americans came to liberate the city at the end of the occupation, the hotel’s corridors portrayed a scene of chaos. Ernest Hemingway claims he personally liberated the hotel’s bar by placing an order of 73 Martinis – the largest order in the bar’s history and possibly necessary for the writer, who
had just been discovered cheating on his wife with another member of the press corps – a woman who was renowned for going braless under tight sweaters. Meanwhile just down the corridor, Hollywood actress Ingrid Bergman was bed-hopping with celebrated war photographer Robert Capa, in an affair that was later immortalised on-screen by master director Alfred Hitchcock. Possibly the most famous guest in the Ritz history books is Diana, Princess of Wales who was dating Dodi Al Fayed, the current owner’s late son. Hotel security footage captures the loved-up couple’s final fateful moments exiting the revolving door at the rear of the hotel just moments before their driver crashed into the side of the Pont De l’Alma attempting to elude paparazzi. Diana may be the most recognised, but she was certainly not the only royal to be charmed by the Ritz. Monarchs have been staying at the property since the days of King Edward VII – who reportedly got stuck in a Ritz bathtub with his lover and had to be prised out of the tub, naked, of course. King Alfonso of Spain was another frequenter and enjoyed a quart of Dom Pérignon and a dozen strawberries whenever he visited the hotel bar. In the same year as the tragedy of Princess Diana, Pamela Harriman, the English-born American socialite, 54
met a watery end while swimming in the Ritz pool. Best known as a woman who snared some of the world’s most eligible men – she was married to William Harriman, Leland Hayward and Randolph Churchill – Harriman was a favourite of Winston Churchill (her first father-in-law) and named her son after the British Prime Minister. She established a glittering place for herself in Parisian high society and became a frequent visitor to the Ritz. It was there that the socialite had a clandestine rendezvous with her second husband, and celebrated the liberation of Paris with her lover at the now-called Hemingway Bar, making the hotel a poignant setting for her last breath. While praise for the Ritz is universally positive, its entitled clientele also posed some challenges. As the first hotelier in the world to introduce en-suite bathrooms, Oscar Wilde reprimanded César Ritz for doing so, declaring, “Who wants an immovable washing basin in one’s room? I do not. Hide the thing. I prefer to ring for water when I need it.” And while Mr. Wilde would probably not be in favour of the renovations which include the instalation of experience showers in every room, the hotel remains a favourite with celebrities – David Beckham, Anna Wintour, Elton John, Mark Wahlberg and Kate Moss all having made it on the guest list. According to Boyens, the hotel’s reinvention will “ensure that future guests continue to look to the Ritz Paris as the epitome of French art de vivre.” In the bustling heart of Paris, the Ritz captures the imagination like no other hotel can – evoking images of a glamorous era where women wore satin evening gowns and smoked from long cigarette holders, while men in fedoras exuded valor. It remains to be seen whether the palace can continue to play the same role in this century as it did in the previous, but it goes without saying that the incredible adventures, illicit liaisons and tales of political intrigue that unfolded here are something worth hanging onto. After all, while time marches on, history can never be replicated, and where better to look for the next batch of stories than this tapestry of elegance in the beautiful Place Vendôme.