InterContinental Paris Le Grand and Café de la Paix Reopens After Extensive Renovation
InterContinental Hotels and Resorts announced the reopening of the InterContinental Paris Le Grand and the storied Café de la Paix.
The hotel underwent a three-phase multi-year renovation under the direction of architect Pierre-Yves Rochon.
The scope of the work covered al guest rooms and suites, meeting spaces, the glass-roofed La Verrière, and all public areas. The work also covered the Club InterContinental Lounge and the Café de la Paix.
Standard and “executive” rooms feature a grey-and-white décor with blue accents and carpeting, while suites are a more monochromatic grey and white.
The Café de la Paix, which opened in 1862, is a café located at the intersection of the Place de l’Opéra and the Boulevard des Capucines in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. It was designed by the architect Alfred Armand in Napoleon IIII style.
The café’s large dining room is now two spaces. The Boulevard des Capucines side has the space’s famous fluted columns and ceilings adorned with painted skies, while the Place de l’Opéra side has a lighter décor, the hotel said.
The InterContinental Paris – Le Grand opened as the Grand-Hôtel de la Paix on June 30, 1862. Its name was later shortened to Le Grand-Hôtel. At opening,the hotel had 800 guest rooms on four floors, with another entire floor for servants accompanying the guests.
The hotel was known for hosting royalty. Visitors including Czar Nicholas, King Edward VII of England, and Queen Rania of Jordan. Roman Polanski set much of his film, “Frantic,” which starred Harrison Ford, at the hotel, and Émile Zola used the hotel as the setting for the death of his tragic character, Nana, in his novel of the same name about a streetwalker who rises to being a highly sought call girl.
In 1878, the hotel was seized by creditors of the Péreire brothers who owned the hotel, and it was sold to the CIGA, the Compagnia Italiana Grandi Alberghi, or Italian Grand Hotels Company, in 1972 and had several owners until it was sold to the London-based based Grand Metropolitan Hotels in 1979. Grand Metropolitan acquired the Inter-Continental Hotels chain in 1981 and sold IHC to the Japanese company Saison in 1988. Ten years later, Saison sold the hotelier to the British brewery Bass, which sold its brewing assets in 2000 and changed its name to Six Continents, the predecessor of the current InterContinental Hotels Group today.
(Photo: Accura Media Group)
