Grand Hotel du Louvre

How the Stage was Set
HISTORY IN BRIEF 1855: The hotel opened for business. 1973: The Grand Hotel du Louvre became part of the newly formed Concorde Group.

HISTORY IN DETAIL
Mid-19th C: Baron Georges-Eugène Hausmann transformed Paris. In under two decades he turned the cramped medieval city of old into the spacious modern metropolis we know today.
1855: Baron Hausmann commissioned the Péreire brothers, powerful bankers who heavily financed the reconstruction of Paris, to build a luxurious new hotel. Designed by the architect Alfred Armand, the Grand Hotel du Louvre was opened in 1855, just in time for the International Exhibition staged in Paris that year. It was the first luxury hotel in France – and the first ‘Grand Hotel’. 1860s: The Grand Hotel du Louvre boasted 700 deluxe guest-rooms, as well as two steam-powered lifts –the very height of modernity at that time– and wide staircases. A 1,250-strong staff kept operations running smoothly. There were guides and interpreters, an information desk, a post office, a telegraph room and an exchange bureau. The Grand Hotel was well-reputed for its culinary excellence, both French and foreign. 1870s: The owners of the Galeries du Louvre, a fashionable new department store across the street, bought the Grand Hotel du Louvre and shifted it to its current location on Place André Malraux. 1897: Impressionist Camille Pissarro took up residence at the Grand Hotel du Louvre 1898: The hotel’s management company adopted its present name, ‘Société du Louvre’. 1909: The Société du Louvre inaugurated the Hotel de Crillon. 1973: The Société du Louvre formed Concorde Hotels, grouping all of its luxury hotels into one subsidiary. Owned until recently by the prestigious Taittinger family, specialists par excellence in the fine art of luxury, Concorde Hotels is a global sales and marketing network covering over 90 prestigious hotels worldwide.

Famous guests of years gone by include Camille Pissarro and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (see Legendary Stories)

Camille Pissarro painted some of his famous Paris townscapes from the window of his appartment (today’s Pissarro suite). Pissarro endured prolonged financial hardship in keeping faith with the aims of Impressionism. Despite acute eye trouble, his later years were his most prolific. The Parisian and provincial scenes of this period include Place du Théâtre Français (1898) and Bridge at Bruges (1903). ------ Sherlock Holmes’ creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was so impressed with the hotel that he featured it in several of his famous detective’s adventures.