Hong Kong-based hotelier opens luxury palace in Paris

Located just steps away from Paris's Arc de Triomphe monument, a palace which served as a backdrop to the signing of the Paris Peace Accords that put an end to the Vietnam War has been restored to its former glory, raising the bar of luxury in Paris.
After six years of planning, design, and construction, the centuries-old palace in the 16th arrondissement has been reworked to become The Peninsula Paris, an opulent 200-room hotel that features the expert handiwork of 900 French artists and craftsmen who painted frescoes by hand, installed marble walls and mosaic tiles and restored aging wood work.
To call the hotel gold-gilded is no exaggeration: In total, 20,000 pieces of gold leaf were used to cover the property.
Originally opened as a grand hotel in 1908, the building was occupied then sold during WWII, only to later became a government building managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs until 2009.
In what’s now Le Bar Kléber, American diplomat Henry Kissinger helped negotiate the Paris Peace Accords which would bring the Vietnam War to a close.
Other claims to fame: In 1928, hotel guest George Gershwin would write his musical piece “An American in Paris,” and the hotel would also become the headquarters of UNESCO in 1946.
While the hotel pays homage to its heritage with painstaking restoration efforts that went so far as to research original paint colors, rooms are equipped with the conveniences of modern technology, including in-room tablets for controlling everything from lighting to room temperature.
The Peninsula’s entry into Paris challenges rival Shangri-La, another Hong Kong-based luxury hotelier which created a splash when it opened a Parisian outpost in 2010.
Average nightly rates for The Peninsula Paris start at €1,095. The hotel opens August 1.
Source: Relaxnews