Icon of Paris : HOTEL LUTETIA

The legendary Hotel Lutetia, which reopened its doors in 2018 after a long restoration, is one of the most iconic buildings in Paris.

Located in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district of Paris, the hotel was originally conceived in 1910 by the Boucicaut family, the founders of Le Bon Marché, as a place where customers coming to Le Bon Marché for a shopping experience could stay nearby.

Years later, the building was acquired by The Set Collection Luxury Hotels group and closed for a period of time in order to regain its well-deserved reputation. After an ambitious restoration and renovation, the hotel reopened in 2018 and within a year was awarded the coveted "Palace" status by the French Ministry of Tourism. Hotel Lutetia is still the only Rive Gauche Otel with this status.

Rive Gauche, known as the Left Bank of Paris, was once the favorite district of artists, poets and writers. James Joyce wrote the best book of all time, Ulysses, in this hotel. André Gide, Ernest Hemingway, Samuel Beckett, André Malraux and Saint-Exupéry lived there for a long time. Picasso and Matisse also settled in the hotel periodically.

The hotel also played an important role in celebrating the emergence of jazz music in the 50s. Lutetia has always been a favorite of the elite. For a while, it was owned by the Tattinger family and was frequented by important politicians and businessmen such as François Mitterand, as well as stars such as Serge Gainsbourg and Miles Davis. In the 1980s, the hotel was redesigned by French fashion designer Sonia Rykiel. David Lynch and Armani names designed their own suites at that time.

Lutetia, which captures the rhythm of today, even appears in the hit Netflix series Emily in Paris. The story of the hotel, which is located in an area famous for its history, is not known by everyone: When Paris was liberated from Nazi occupation at the end of World War II, the hotel was taken over by French and American forces and used as a repatriation center for prisoners of war and concentration camp survivors. Let's talk about the latest renovation of this Art Nouveau and Art Deco marvel...

The Set Collection Luxury Hotels group hired renowned architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte to restore and renovate the legendary Parisian landmark. Wilmotte and his team have preserved the hotel's heritage and unique charm while updating it with a contemporary design approach.

The main motto for the renovation of the iconic building was "letting more light into the building" and the entire design was based around this motto. Accordingly, the layout of the ground floor was changed and an inner courtyard was created to allow light to enter. In order to modernize the hotel while preserving Art Nouveau and Art Deco elements, the architect revitalized what was hidden and designed what was not to match.