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Paris: 10 hotels appearing in your favourite films
A night in one of the Parisian hotels of your favorite movies
From the Ritz to the Peninsula, get yourself into a good mood until the end of the night thanks to the hotels featured in our Paris guide to the 1,000 cult places from films, series, music, comics and novels.
Hotel Ritz in Da Vinci Code
Professor Langdon is staying at this hotel. This is his starting point to follow the invisible line of the meridian and thus discover the tomb of Mary Magdalene. The Hotel Ritz is one of the most luxurious hotels in the world, an adjective that is also appropriate for the Place Vendôme where it is located. Dan Brown’s eponymous novel was released in March 2003 in the United States and was so successful that Columbia bought the rights to it in June of that year. Well done, since the film had a total of $850 million in revenue!
“The Ritz is the penultimate step before paradise,” said Ernest Hemingway, a regular at the luxurious establishment. Because nothing is beautiful enough for its customers, the five-star hotel founded in 1898 remained closed for four years, the time it took to make a new appearance. Reopened in 2016, it now also offers a terrace equipped with a retractable roof, a Chanel spa – “Coco” lived there for 37 years and gave its name to a suite -, a tea room dominated by the portrait of Marcel Proust, another enthusiast of the place, and even, for the attention of its VIP guests, a secret tunnel to reach the parking lot of Place Vendôme away from prying eyes!
Address: 15 place Vendôme, 75001 Paris
Hotel Scribe in The Devil Wears Prada
During their Parisian getaway, Miranda and Andy stay in this hotel. Built in 1861, it was home to Josephine Baker in 1968. The shooting in France was done without Meryl Streep, as the actress did not make the trip. The scenes inside the rooms were not shot on location but in the United States.
Address : 1 rue Scribe, 75009 Paris
Is the Hotel Meurice in Is Paris burning?
During the occupation, the German army had established its command centre in this luxurious hotel. Military governor of Greater Paris, General Dietrich von Choltitz (Gerd Froebe) received the Swedish consul there, played by Orson Welles. If the film is in black and white, it is mainly because at the time of shooting, the government refused to allow Nazi flags to fly in the streets of Paris. Only their grey versions were tolerated.
The title is a quote from Hitler to General Dietrich von Choltitz, then Governor of Paris. The dictator had ordered him on August 23, 1944 that only ruins of the city would remain when the Allies took it over. The next day, Hitler reportedly phoned him, furious, to ask “Is Paris burning?” It wasn’t. The high-ranking officer had refused to follow his chief’s orders, remaining under the impression of an exhausted man who had fallen into madness when he had met him a few weeks earlier. The general signed the surrender of the Nazi troops on August 25, 1944 at the Montparnasse railway station.
Salvador Dali occupied for 27 years, one month a year, the royal retinue of Alfonso XIII. Like a rock star, the eccentric genius smeared the walls with paint, while his tame cheetahs laced the carpet. Surreal! The mythical Parisian palace, installed since 1835 in front of the Tuileries garden, did not hold it against him and gave its name to his gastronomic restaurant.
Address : 228 rue de Rivoli, 75001 Paris
Hotel George V in Three Days to Kill
Ethan manages to locate the room of the Albino’s “accountant” but is interrupted by a call from Zooey. This one’s waiting for him on a father-daughter date.
Ideally located a stone’s throw from the Champs-Elysées, the Four Seasons Hotel George V, built in 1928 in Art Deco style, offers 244 rooms and suites, designed as true Parisian apartments, a spa and three Michelin-starred restaurants in 2017, a first in Europe. The George V also has a magnificent marble courtyard and an incredible wine cellar, located fourteen metres underground and holding no less than 50,000 bottles. The oldest is a Madeira 1792; the most expensive, a magnum of Pétrus vintage 1964, worth 40,000 euros.
Address: 31 avenue George-V, 75008 Paris
Hotel Plaza Athénée in Rush Hour 3
Just coming out of the sewers with a particularly unpleasant smell but a completely neutral attitude, James Carter and Yan Naing Lee go to this five-star establishment where they ask for a room with two beds and two bathrooms. They also order a massage, clothes and a case of cologne.
It remains one of the most popular five-star hotels for celebrities. The Plaza Athénée, opened in 1913, is also one of the most immediately identifiable with its 1,900 red geraniums in the windows, a reminder of the love story between Marlène Dietrich and Jean Gabin. After celebrating its centenary, the establishment closed for ten months in order to modernise and now has 5,500 m2, 14 additional suites and a new bar.
Address: 25 avenue Montaigne, 75008 Paris
Grand Hotel Paris Intercontinental in Prêt-à-Porter
Kitty Potter (Kim Basinger) interviews many people in front of the reception desk of this luxury hotel, open since 1862.
Overlooking the Place de l’Opéra, the Intercontinental Paris Le Grand is a veritable institution, inaugurated in 1862 by Empress Eugénie in the presence of an orchestra conducted by Offenbach. With its 470 rooms and suites, redecorated in 2002 in a Napoleon III style, its glass roof, an 800 m2 winter garden planted with giant ficus trees and flowering white orchids, and its marine spa, the establishment performs a very high-end partition.
Address : 2 rue Scribe, 75009 Paris
Hotel Lutetia in The Roundup
One of the last scenes takes place in this hotel at the end of the war. The facility has served well as a place of refuge for survivors of the death camps. It was here that most of them were identified and treated.
Since 1910, its imposing facade faces the Bon Marché to which it owes its existence: Marguerite Boucicaut, the owner of the department store, had it built to house her provincial and foreign customers. Attended by Gide, Joyce, Beckett, Malraux, Saint-Exupéry, Picasso, Matisse and Joséphine Baker, Lutetia had given carte blanche to some of its guests – the sculptor Philippe Hiquily, the filmmaker David Lynch – to design their own suites. Re-imagined by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, the emblematic Art Deco hotel reopened its doors in July 2018 after four years of work. Paintings and stained glass have regained their original lustre and the establishment now has a 700 m2 spa with a 17 m swimming pool.
Address: 45 boulevard Raspail, 75006 Paris
Molitor Pool in Life of Pi
The main character is called Swimming Pool Molitor Patel (Suraj Sharma) because his father, rather than collecting postcards, “collected swimming pools”. The man had swum in every swimming pool in the world and considered the Molitor pool to be the most beautiful. We can see the pool when Pi explains the origin of his first name. Nicknamed “The White Liner”, this Art Deco pool was the first, when it opened, to combine an indoor pool and an outdoor Olympic pool.
Molitor resurfaced in 2014, metamorphosed into a luxury hotel complex with a chic brasserie and spa. Inaugurated in 1929 by Johnny Weissmuller, the pool was for 60 years the most popular in Paris, for its two Art Deco pools and its avant-garde atmosphere, before becoming a mythical spot for street art and the temple of the Parisian underground – a giant rave took place there in 2001. The ponds have been rebuilt almost identically and Molitor has not forgotten its artistic past of the 90s: a Rolls, once owned by Eric Cantona and tagged by the artist JonOne, sits enthroned in the entrance hall.
Address: 13 rue Nungesser-et-Coli, 75016 Paris
The Peninsula in The Army of Shadows
During the Occupation, this establishment was requisitioned to house the headquarters of the German General Staff. In this adaptation of Joseph Kessel’s novel, written in 1943, it is here that Philippe Gerbier (Lino Ventura) is sent to torture for his “Gaullist” thoughts. He will, however, manage to escape from it. Several other scenes were shot in this building, a former luxury hotel from 1908 to 1936, under the name Majestic, before belonging to the French government until 2007. It was here, in particular, that the Paris Peace Accords were signed, putting an end to the Vietnam War. After being sold and renovated, it was returned to its original function in 2014.
Two hundred luxurious rooms, including 34 of the capital’s most spectacular suites, a breathtaking spa and swimming pool, a frescoed cigar smoking room, three restaurants including the Oiseau Blanc on the top floor with its 360-degree terrace and view of the Eiffel Tower: the Asian group The Peninsula Hotels has made a big hit with the opening of Peninsula Paris in August 2014, its first foray into Europe.
Address: 19 avenue Kléber, 75016 Paris
Hotel Saint-Jacques in Charade
Regina and Peter Joshua (Cary Grant) slept in adjoining rooms in this hotel then called St. Jacques. It is now part of the Maxim hotels chain. To get there, the characters pass through the Saint-Jacques metro station, which is underground in the film, but aerial in reality. The filming was carried out at Varenne station, on line 13, much closer to the gardens of the Champs-Elysées, the Palais Royal, the Halles and the Comédie Française that can be seen on the screen. Since the age difference between the two actors made Cary Grant uncomfortable, comic anecdotes about it were added to the script to reassure him. The name of his character is composed of the two first names of the sons of director Stanley Donen.
Address : Maxim Latin, 28 rue Censier, 75005 Paris
The Fantrippers Buying Board
The Paris guide to the 1000 cult places of films, series, music, comics and novels
The coolest guide in Paris!
The café of Amélie, the mansion of Untouchables, the jazz club of the finale of La La Land, the Hôtel du Nord of the mythical replica of Arletty “Atmosphere”, the cinema of A bout de souffle, the restaurant of Ratatouille, the quays of the Seine of Midnight in Paris, the secret places of the Da Vinci Code, the grocery store of January in La Traversée de Paris , the Bridge of Inception and Peur sur la ville, the addresses of the spectacular scenes of Mission Impossible 6, but also series Call my agent, Gears, Le Bureau des légendes, Sense8, Sex and The City, Gossip Girl…
Etienne Daho’s Café de Flore, Jay-Z and Kanye West’s hotel in Nas in Paris, Serge Gainsbourg’s Poinçonneur des Lilas metro station, Serge Reggiani and Marc Lavoine’s Mirabeau Bridge, Mc Solaar’s Lyon station…
The places evoked in the comics Adèle Blanc-Sec, Largo Winch, Blake and Mortimer, Michel Vaillant…
But also in the novels of Ernest Hemingway, Victor Hugo, Leo Malet, Daniel Pennac, Marc Levy, Guillaume Musso… you’ll find all the must-see places of Parisian Pop Culture in this new guide.
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By Damien Duarte
Passionné par la culture pop depuis son enfance, ses références vont de Donald Duck à Batman en passant par Marty McFly. Fantripper dans l'âme, voyager sur les traces de Ghostbusters, James Bond ou des héros de romans comme Cotton Malone fait partie d'un séjour idéal et réussi !