HOTEL lutetia Paris

Paris’s 6th arrondissement, centred around the magnificent sixth-century abbey of saint-germain-des-prés on the Left Bank, is a favourite with tourists who love the charm of its slightly-faded

grandeur, its narrow cobbled streets, ancient churches, museums, and hundreds of art galleries, shops and restaurants.

Yet as far as the upmarket tourist is concerned it has, until recently, lacked one defining feature: a genuine five-star hotel. The city’s grand, iconic establishments – the george V (now the Four seasons), Plaza athénée, the ritz, Le Meurice, the Bristol, the scribe and so on – are all clustered across the river, a lengthy walk or taxi ride away, but there was no equivalent on the Left Bank until the hotel Lutetia (pronounced loo-teesha) reopened its doors on the Boulevard raspail in september 2018 after a refit that took four years.

even its loyalist inhabitants would agree that in the past 20 years or so, Paris has lost some of its lustre. nowhere was that more visible than in the sixième, which had begun to look, at least to my old eyes, just a little neglected. But not anymore. The reopening of the Lutetia was a powerful statement that helped return the neighbourhood to its rightful position as one of the most fashionable in all of europe. across the street, Le Bon Marché, France’s first and still grandest department store, has been restored to its full glory by the millions lavished on it by its new owners, the

LVMH fashion group, and, with the re-emergence of the Lutetia, the surrounding shops and restaurants look as if they’ve had a much-needed facelift.

The Israeli akirov family bought the Lutetia from the starwood group (owners of the sheraton and Westin brands among others) for a rumoured 150 million euros in 2010 and spent another 200 million euros basically reconstructing it. The elaborate art nouveau cream façade, with its stone balconies and windows, and balusters adorned with angels, trellises and grapes, was carefully propped up and the internal building taken right down to the first floor.

The original 233 rooms became 184, including 47 suites, all with windowed bathrooms, spread over seven floors, and the famous bar, inevitably a haunt of ernest hemingway, the restaurant and central areas were substantially remodelled and renovated. a 17-metre swimming pool and state-of-the-art spa and wellbeing centre were added in the basement.

The Lutetia was originally built on the site of an old monastery by the owners of Le Bon Marché to house their welloff suppliers and encourage their rich clientele from all over europe to stay longer and spend more. Its building actually spanned the period when art nouveau morphed into art deco and the result, a mixture of both art forms, was seen as an architectural milestone when it opened in december 1910.

The hotel, although never quite in the top rank until its reopening, has a rich and colourful history. It was called Lutetia after the old Latin name for

Paris and soon became one of the great watering holes for the city’s intellectuals, writers and artists. andré gide ate lunch in the bistro almost daily in the 1920s, camus was a regular visitor and Picasso and Matisse took up residence for a time (not together). after 17 years of anguished toil, James Joyce finally put the finishing touches to Finnegans

Wake there in 1939, and sent it off to the publishers just before the germans moved in – literally.

‘The view over the sixième from the rooftop terrace is one of the most spectacular in Paris’

The legend in Paris is that the Lutetia was the headquarters of the gestapo in the war, but it is not technically true. The gestapo had their own building on the avenue

Foch, which was the scene of some pretty gruesome atrocities, the Luftwaffe took over the ritz, the german high command moved into the Meurice and the abwehr, or counter-intelligence, occupied the Lutetia. Fortunately, the hotel’s reputation was redeemed after the liberation of Paris when it became the centre where Jews who had survived the concentration camps could be reunited with what remained of their families. To show his solidarity, general de gaulle chose to spend his honeymoon night in the hotel.

The Taittinger champagne family bought it in the 1950s but never spent much money on it and, like much of the sixième, including the poor old Le Bon Marché, it became seriously run-down, a favoured hangout for artists and jazz musicians, including the legendary american-born singer Josephine Baker who often performed in the bar (she originally scandalised Paris in the 1920s by dancing in the Folies Bergère wearing only a girdle of fake bananas).

The Lutetia is one of a trio of grand old hotels in the akirov’s set group, joining the hotel café royal in London and the conservatorium in amsterdam, which have also been resurrected to their former glory. ‘The Lutetia was open for over 100 years and hadn’t had an insideout renovation,’ says georgi akirov. ‘We wanted to preserve its history but make it suitable for the modern traveller.’ The French architect, Jean-michel Wilmotte, a regular patron of the Lutetia, was hired to give it ‘a new look with an airier and fresher feel’.

he succeeded brilliantly, opening up an interior courtyard to allow natural light to stream in, installing mirrored lights in the Bar Joséphine, a former breakfast room, and Murano glass chandeliers in the lobby. all the corridor surfaces are gently reflective and lighting is cleverly fitted into every alcove. The view over the sixième from the rooftop terrace is one of the most spectacular in Paris and even from some of the lower floor windows the eiffel Tower and Les Invalides are perfectly framed. The furniture is custom-built in the original early 20th century style, and Jean-michel tried to preserve as much as possible of the old fittings and features. a frescoed ceiling in Bar Joséphine, long hidden under layers of paint, took 17 000 hours to restore.

The akirovs were prepared to spend whatever it took to create a hotel that could hold its own against its more famous rivals on the other side of the seine. and they’ve done it. hotellutetia.com