Title : Inside Hotel Lutetia in Paris after its £177MILLION refurbishment
link : Inside Hotel Lutetia in Paris after its £177MILLION refurbishment
Inside Hotel Lutetia in Paris after its £177MILLION refurbishment
Is this now Paris's best hotel? Inside the historic £750-a-night Lutetia - which once welcomed Hemingway and Picasso - after its £177MILLION revamp
- The historic Lutetia Hotel opened in Paris over 100 years ago and has undergone a £177million makeover
- The hotel will re-open on Thursday with a spa, indoor pool and jazz bar with a frescoed ceiling
- It will offer 184 rooms, including 47 suites and is the sole luxury hotel on the left bank of the river in Paris
- During the Nazi occupation, the hotel was requisitioned by German forces and used to host troops
The Lutetia hotel in Paris, favoured by the likes of Picasso and Hemingway, reopens this week after undergoing a 200million-euro (£177million) refurb that it hopes will win it the 'palace' label reserved for the most opulent of French lodgings.
The new five-star Lutetia will re-open on Thursday (July 12) with a spa, indoor pool and jazz bar with a frescoed ceiling.
It will offer 184 rooms, including 47 suites, down from its original 233 rooms. The new guests will pay rates starting at 850 euros a night, rising to 19,000 euros for the two-bedroom Presidential suite. Before the revamp the average rate was 300 euros.
The swimming pool in the brand new spa of the revamped Hotel Lutetia in Paris, which has undergone a £177million makeover
The brand new jazz bar - with a frescoed ceiling. Former guests have included Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso
Jean-Luc Cousty, its general manager, said: 'We are alone on the Left Bank with this offering.'
Steeped in history, from its occupation by Nazi intelligence agents to its years as a hangout for celebrity intellectuals in the 1950s, the Lutetia hasn't changed much on the outside at least.
The new-look hotel in the chic Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighbourhood has retained its imposing art deco facade, lined with elegant wrought iron balconies overhung with carved stone grapevines.
But the makeover has allowed the hotel to spruce up its original frescos and stucco work, decking out the 184 rooms and suites in understated luxury.
One of the guest bathroom, which has marble sinks, counter tops and a bath. The hotel will offer 184 rooms, including 47 suites, down from its original 233 rooms
Mr Cousty told AFP the goal was to 'create a contemporary hotel by enhancing everything that was historic'.
'The Lutetia has not lost its soul, and one of the big triumphs of architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte is that natural light has been brought in throughout,' he told AFP.
There is a softly lit 17-metre swimming pool, while the rooms feature discreet art-deco chandeliers and a lot of white marble: the baths were carved out of a 1.9 tonne block.
While the brasserie will not reopen until autumn, guests can sip a cocktail in the Josephine bar, whose frescos, previously forgotten under layers of wallpaper and paint, have been restored after 17,000 hours of painstaking work.
The spacious living room in one of the one-bedroom suites. The manager said that the goal of the refurbishment was to 'create a contemporary hotel by enhancing everything that was historic'
The living area in a junior suite at the Lutetia. The hotel is the sole luxury hotel on the Left Bank, the traditional home of writers, painters, poets and random bohemians
Opened in 1910, the Lutetia owes its existence to its neighbour Bon Marche, one of the first department stores in the world.
Marguerite Boucicaut, its owner, had the hotel built to provide accommodation for her wealthy customers travelling up to Paris from the provinces for shopping trips.
Situated in the centre of the Left Bank, the heart of the French intellectual scene, it quickly became a hub of philosophical and artistic debate.
During the Nazi occupation of Paris, the hotel was requisitioned by German forces and used to host and entertain troops.
Upon the liberation, wartime leader General Charles de Gaulle - who himself had honeymooned at the Lutetia - ordered the hotel to take in thousands of refugees.
Post-war it swiftly regained its reputation as a place to see and be seen, with artists like Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse haunting its hallways.
James Joyce famously wrote part of 'Ulysees' there - with the help of editing suggestions from Ernest Hemingway - and the dancer Josephine Baker was also a regular.
Just two years ago, opening a luxury hotel would have been wildly optimistic following a series of terror attacks in France
The manager said the Lutetia attracted hardly any of the ultra-rich 'Middle Eastern and Russian customers who prefer to stay in the "Golden Triangle"', an area near the Champs-Elysees boulevard on the other side of the river
Currently a four-star hotel, the Lutetia has applied for a fifth - the next step before getting the 'palace' label, which is currently held by 10 top Parisian hotels including the Bristol and Peninsula.
The Lutetia 'offers something different, it wouldn't do any harm to the other palaces because its clientele is different,' said Christian Mantei, head of national tourism development agency Atout France.
Cousty said the Lutetia attracted hardly any of the ultra-rich 'Middle Eastern and Russian customers who prefer to stay in the "Golden Triangle"', an area near the Champs-Elysees boulevard on the other side of the river.
Mr Cousty added: 'Americans made up a third of our guests before the revamp - they should account for half now'
New guests will pay rates starting at 850 euros a night, rising to 19,000 euros for the two-bedroom Presidential suite. Note how the stonework is now far less dreary
While still out of reach for all but the wealthiest, he said the Lutetia was aiming for 'more accessible' pricing than those rivals on the Right Bank.
Bought in 2010 by Israeli group Alrov, the Lutetia is seeking to double its turnover - which stood at 30 million euros before the renovation works - within three or four years of reopening.
At least the timing is good: after two years during which Paris was scarred by terror attacks, tourists returned to the French capital in record numbers in 2017, with 33.8 million hotel rooms booked.
Occupancy rates of Paris luxury hotels fell 15 per cent to 52 per cent in 2016.
Mr Cousty added: 'Americans made up a third of our guests before the revamp - they should account for half now.
'The French should stay at 10 per cent, with Japan and Korea around six to seven per cent.'
Before the revamp, when the Lutetia was a four-star hotel, the average room rate was 300 euros. This picture was taken on June 18, 2010
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