The Grand Hall in the Hotel Majestic, Paris
The
Hong Kong Heritage Project (HKHP) has acquired a collection of valuable
historic postcards, newspaper clippings and a rare special edition 1908
souvenir brochure from The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels (HSH). The collection
tells the story of the Majestic Hotel, today’s Peninsula Paris, situated on 19
Avenue Kléber. The hotel was first opened in 1908 and welcomed guests including
Marcel Proust, James Joyce and Pablo Picasso. In 1928 George Gershwin wrote one
of his best known compositions ‘An American in Paris’ whilst at the hotel,
invoking the sights and sounds of the French capital in the 1920s. The Majestic
witnessed the cultural, military and political events of the day through its
role as a military field hospital during World War One and a venue for peace
conferences that gave birth to the League of Nations in 1920. The hotel was
later used as an international conference centre under the control of the
French Government’s Foreign Ministry, where the Paris Peace Accords were signed
which brought the Vietnam War to a close in 1973. The building was built over
the course of two years (1906 - 1908) and was painstakingly restored by HSH in
four (2010 - 2014).