“Hemingway personally liberated its bar from the Nazis. Proust ordered from it on his deathbed. Sophia Loren declared it “the most romantic hotel in the world.†It was, of course, the Paris Ritz — headquarters and playhouse to Coco Chanel, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Cole Porter, and Ingrid Bergman, among others. As the hotel closes for a two-year face-lift, A.E. Hotchner recalls the somewhat madcap majesty, eccentric clientele, and unhurried luxury that created a high-life heaven.”
Vanity Fair
