After a closure of more than three-and-a-half years, Ritz Paris reopened on June 6 following a multimillion-dollar revamp.
The New York Times reported the Ritz renovation cost $224 million, but according to Ritz spokesman Matthieu Goffard, it was much more. The Wall Street Journal put it in the region of $450 million. Whatever the cost, it looks and feels very much the same as before.
We understand that this was the intention ? as if it has been refitted for those seeking times past. There are changes, some immediately apparent, but most are subtle.
The questions we ask ourselves are: Is it all too safe" Do we really want those gilded swans-head taps we could not wait to see the back of some years ago" Do we like the color peach for towels and bathrobes" Taste is subjective and many Ritz aficionados will rejoice in the fact that so little appears to have changed. Chain of thought
As you step out from your limo onto the Place Vendôme, arguably the most beautiful location in Paris, the porticoed entrance of the Ritz is just as it always has been, only sharper. New white canopied blinds, the doormen’s uniforms, the best of any we have seen in Paris.
Inside, in what is a lighter space, the blue and gold-carpeted corridor beyond the lobby is immediately familiar. To the right, reception and concierge desks, to the left, the Bar Vendôme.
Much of the original paved patio is now taken up with a neo-Victorian styled, teal-blue conservatory accented by black ...