A ROYAL REVIVAL

Hotel de Crillon in Paris is history refined.

Portrait of Tammy Strobel

Hotel de Crillon in Paris is history refined.

My Reading Room

Many luxury hotels have been built, not many are as steeped in history’s headlining events as the Hotel de Crillon in Paris. The building witnessed the beheading of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette at Place de la Concorde, which it fronts, and the battles to liberate the city in World War II. It hosted Benjamin Franklin as France acknowledged America’s Declaration of Independence and, much later, the signing of the Covenant of the League of Nations.

And after four years of arduous renovation, the 18th-century former residence of the duke of Crillon is ready to host guests once more. Gone are its French neo-classical interiors of goldgilded furnishings. Heritage landmarks, such as its facade and grand reception rooms, are restored, yet given a nuanced contemporary touch with a palette of muted grey, bronze and deep purple.

Its renovated suites pay homage to the building’s prior occupants. The duke’s opulent private family chapel lives again as the Suite Duc de Crillon, accentuated with leather and gold furnishings. The Suite Bernstein, named after famed composer and frequent guest Louis Bernstein, boasts a dining room for six and a terrace view of the Place de la Concorde.

Opulent stories abound here, and riches for Instagram.
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