Famous Paris Hotels

Paris, known as the "City of Lights," attracts 45 million tourists every year. Famous for the Tour d'Eiffel (Eiffel Tower); Arc de Triomphe (Arch of Triumph); and its renowned boulevard, the Champs-Élysées, the capital of France is rich with historic lodgings.

Hotel Le Bristol

The home of the Count of Castellane in 1829, Le Bristol became a hotel in 1925. It is on Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, a fashionable street on which you will find Versace, Christian Dior and Hermès.

Hotel Le Meurice

Le Meurice originally catered to British aristocrats after it opened in 1817. Later it attracted politicians and artists, including surrealist Salvador Dali, who once ordered a herd of sheep to his room and shot blanks at them.

Ritz Hotel

Jules Hardouin-Mansart, the architect of the Versailles Palace, designed the Ritz Hotel building in 1705 as a private residence. It became a hotel in 1898. Famous figures who lodged here include Ernest Hemingway and Coco Chanel.

Hotel Regina Paris

This luxury hotel opened in 1900 and sits across from the Louvre Museum and Tuileries Gardens. Many scenes of the movies "Kiss of the Dragon" and "The Bourne Identity" were filmed at the Regina.

Au Manoir Saint Germain des Près

This hotel is near the historic Brasserie Lipp, Café les Deux Magots and Café de Flore, all haunts of writers and artists such as Camus, Picasso and Sartre.

References

• Ile de France Tourism
• Hotels of Character and Charm in Paris; Tatiana de Beaumont; 2001
• Walks in Hemingway's Paris: A Guide to Paris for the Literary Traveler; Noel Riley Fitch; 1992

Resources

• The World's Worst Hotel Guests
• Famous Prestige Hotels
• Top 10 Luxury Hotel in the Movies -- This Decade
• Hotel Le Bristol