Bought by the British Intercontinental,
the Café de la Paix has been the subject of a complete
renovation.
All the furniture and paint being returned to it's original state. Gaudy gildings,
columns in stucco and Corinthian cornices, high ceilings and ceilings decorated
with mythological figures, marble tables with bronze lion's feet... The Café de
la Paix gives you an exact idea of what a café was like in the Second
Empire.
The success of the Café de
la Paix is inseparable from the opening of the Garnier Opera
commissioned by the famous Baron Haussmann and the creation of
the Avenue de l'Opera in 1875. The Café de la Paix immediately
became the place for meetings of the whole of Paris under the
Second Empire. Artists, Writers, journalists, theatre folk, and
also city businessmen met there.
The Grand Hotel on which it depends
was inaugurated in 1862 in grand style by the Princess Eugènie.
Jacques Offenbach in person led the orchestra.
Proust attended regularly, as
did Maupassant, Zola, Oscar Wilde, Gide, Tristan Bernard. Later,
Marlène Dietrich often came. Hemingway often visited the
establishment, it is here that he wrote some of the passages
in " The sun also rises". It is said that one day with
his wife on their first Parisian holiday, they didn't have enough
money to pay for their meals at the Café de la Paix. So
Ernest was obliged to return to the hotel to get some money.
A strategic position in the heart
of Paris
This strategic position in the heart of business Paris has been confirmed throughout
history. In 1914, the taxis of the Marne on the way to the front marched in
front of the establishment. Clémenceau attended in 1918 on the first
floor of the Café de la Paix for the marching of the troops in front
of the Opera. Closed during the second World war, the Café reopened
it's doors to serve the first meal to General de Gaulle when Paris was finally
liberated.
With it's 42 metre long terrace,
the Café de la Paix still attracts the usual clientele
of Parisians and foreigners.
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reserved - 2008
