The Westin Paris – Vendôme

The Westin Paris - Vendôme
The hotel in 2005, before it was renamed The Westin
General information
Location	3, Rue de Castiglione, Paris, France
Coordinates	48°52′15″N 2°19′51″E / 48.87083°N 2.33083°E
Opening	April 1878
Management	Starwood Hotels
Technical details
Floor count	5
Other information
Number of rooms	440
Number of restaurants	2

Hôtel Continental, on the left, in 1900

A ballroom in The Westin

The Westin Paris – Vendôme, at 3 rue de Castiglione on the corner of the rue de Rivoli, facing the Tuileries Garden opened in April 1878 as the Hôtel Continental,^[1] It was designed by Charles Garnier's son-in-law Henri Blondel^[2] and was intended to be the most luxurious hotel in Paris at the time. It occupied a full block, the former premises of the Ministry of Finance, (burned in 1871) which had been designed by François-Hippolyte Destailleur in 1817, following the Bourbon Restoration.^[3] During the first World War the hotel was used as a military hospital by the French.^[4] The Hôtel Continental remained the largest hotel in Paris for decades; the Russian Grand Dukes habitually stayed there;^[5] at the Liberation of Paris, bedsheets were hung from its windows as cheerful flags of surrender.^[6] The hotel was renamed the Inter-Continental Paris in 1969, and then became The Westin Paris in 2005, adding the suffix Vendôme to its name in 2010.

Notes

1. Karl Baedeker, Paris and Its Environs, 1878.
2. "Henri Blondel (1832-97), son-in-law of Charles Garnier" (Elaine Denby, Grand Hotels: Reality and Illusion (1998:85).
3. see note).
4. "Belonging and Betrayal", Gervase Vernon, Amazon, 2013
5. Notes by Lord Hardinge.
6. Vintage photo

External links

• The Westin Paris - Vendôme Official Website
• The Westin Paris - Vendôme Official Chain Website