Royal Monceau
The Royal Monceau Hotel is a luxury hotel located at 37 avenue Hoche, 8th arrondissement, Paris, France. The hotel has 203 rooms and 45 suites that have been recently refurbished. Two of its restaurants have a Michelin star: "Le Jardin" serves international and Provencale cuisine and "Il Carpaccio" serves Italian cuisine.
Notable guests have included Dwight David Eisenhower, Winston Churchill, Robert De Niro, Charles Aznavour, Michel Polnareff, Madonna, and Michael Jackson.
From 2008 it has been managed by the Raffles Group.
The hotel was originally designed by architect Louis Duhayon, and opened in 1928. From its opening it became the meeting point of many artists and celebrities, such as Maurice Chevalier, Walt Disney, Coco Chanel, Hemingway, Joséphine Baker, Joseph Kessel and also contemporary stars such as Michel Polnareff et Robert de Niro.
In 1947, Ho Chi Minh stayed there for seven weeks during the Fontainebleau conference that established the new relationship between France and Vietnam. In May 1948 the negotiations that led to the signature of the Israeli Declaration of Independence by David Ben Gourion and Golda Meir took place in its lounges.
Le Royal Monceau was founded by Pierre Bermond and André Junot who at the time owned 30% of French luxury hotels like the Miramar in Cannes and Biarritz, the Carlton in Paris, the hotels in Evian and the California in Paris.
In 1978, Doctor Osmane Aïdi, then owner of the building, created Le Royal Monceau Group that comprised Le Royal Monceau, the Hôtel Vernet in Paris, The Elysée Palace in Nice, the Hôtel Miramar Crouesty in Brittany and L’Ours Blanc in l’Alpe d’Huez. In 2007 French businessman Alexandre Allard put an end to the litigation between the shareholders of Le Royal Monceau and Qatari Diar became the new owner of the place after buying it out for the price of 250 million euros.
In June 2008, the entire furniture of the hotel was put up for auction. This auction sale, carried out by Cornette de Saint-Cyr, yielded 3,3 million euros. On June 26, 2008, A “Demolition Party” was organized in order to celebrate the beginning of the construction work ; 1500 people turned up and, led all along by construction workers, watched live performances by various artists (fluorescent wood installation in the lobby, screening of a movie directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, live production of a short movie directed by Olivier Dahan, gigs…)
The significant renovation works started the very next day under the leadership of the renowned French designer, Philippe Starck. The extensive works were finished in the autumn of 2010, and the hotel re-opened on October 18, 2010. The luxury hotel now includes 149 bedrooms - instead of 260 - of which 61 suites and 3 prestige apartments (located in the attached building, 41 avenue Hoche, now part of the luxury hotel), a 1500 square meters spa with a 26 meters long pool. There will also be an exhibition hall, an art library and a movie theater.
Asian resort company Raffles is handling the management of the hotel and Sylvain Ercoli, who has been previously in charge of several luxury hotels such as the Ritz, the George V, the Saint-Géran (in Mauritius), the Byblos in Saint-Tropez and the Crillon for two years, is the managing director.
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Coordinates: 48°52′33″N 2°18′01″E / 48.875696°N 2.300354°E
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