Welcome to Grand Hôtel, the Blog about historic hotels!
Above: The Carlton Hotel in Cannes (France) providing a glamorous backdrop in
Alfred Hitchcock's movie 'To Catch a Thief' starring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant.
I don't know when I first became fascinated with hotels, but I do remember a movie I was watching as a young kid on TV in the early 1980s. It was Alfred Hitchcock's 'To Catch a Thief' and it made quite an impression on me.
There it was, a magical hedonistic wonderland of the 1950s called the French Riviera, providing the set for probably two of the most elegant characters ever to grace the cinematic screen. Everything seemed to ooze luxury and glamor: the landscape, the places, the story and its characters, and then above all - a hotel, the Carlton in Cannes. It was the first time I laid eyes on this beautiful Belle Époque masterpiece with its two signature cupolas adorning the main façade, facing the azure Mediterranean and separated from it by the palm tree lined 'Boulevard de la Croisette'. In fact, if somebody really had invented this to be a movie a set, one could not have dreamed for a more glamorous one!
From that day, the Grand Hotels of this world got me hooked and the mere reading of names like 'Palace', 'Majestic', 'Excelsior', 'Splendide'... caused (and still does cause) excitement and the desire to push their revolving doors. And sometimes, both circumstances and travel help to replace the mere theoretical approach by the real experience! Even though evoking luxurious hotels intrigues many of us because of the many stories and histories involving its often illustrious and sometimes notorious guests, I am interested in hotels through the eyes of an architect.
How does a particular hotel function as a building type? What is the layout the architect had in mind for the hotel's demanding guests in their temporary residence? Are there any special rooms (think the Tonga Room of San Francisco's Fairmont Hotel) creating extraordinary destinations not only for guests but for visitors alike? And how are the accommodations, from the modest single room to the most spacious suite, laid out?
This investigation is the result of a personal passion and it would be a pleasure to share a little bit of my enthusiasm for those historic hotels which were (and hopefully remain) the latest word in luxury and elegance; who have created a truly unique sense of place in their respective locations all over the world; which have traveled through time and still function the way they were intended: a home away from home for the discerning traveler. Some of the names will ring in the ears of even the unfamiliar, and some will be rather unexpected vestiges of the days when a particular hotel was THE place to stay in style.
Please follow me on a journey to the grand, elegant, historic hotels of this world!
