The Hotel on Place Vendome: Life, Death, and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris Hardcover – Illustrated, March 11, 2014

This was a marvelous read that dealt with the occupation of Paris (1940-1944), but more so with the occupants of the Hotel Ritz. The blood and guts were there, but somewhat muffled since the main focus was on the exotic residents of the famous hotel (opened in 1898). Tilar J. Mazzeo is part of that new group of authors that write non-fiction, but make it read like a novel. It was executed with skill and efficiency with almost every chapter ending in a cliffhanger. The book actually has a cast of characters, which I found accommodating considering all those French and German names. I’m dumbfounded that Humphrey Bogart, Sidney Greenstreet, and Peter Lorre were not regulars at the hotel (joking). But guess who comes to the Ritz for an extended stay at the end of the occupation? Casablanca’s Ingrid Bergman, who surprisingly falls in love with another sometime resident, Robert Capa, the famous American war photographer. I realize some reviewers object to what I found intriguing, but that’s why there are “different strokes for different folks” (I love my idioms). Mazzeo’s narration made for a intoxicating (by the way, champagne was the drink of choice) and credible romp through those turbulent years, backed by twenty three pages of notes and ten pages of selected bibliography. One tries to guess who is the spy, double agent, collaborator, or member of the French resistance amongst the hotel staff and inhabitants throughout this stimulating book. Wow, enough said for the opening paragraph.On June 14 1940, 300,000 germans occupy Paris, while the great (ha) Charles de Gaulle heads out of town. Also leaving ahead of the German invasion are the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, yes the same Edward VIII who abdicated the throne of England for twice divorced Wallis Simpson. Luckily, Winston Churchill sent them in exile to Bermuda till the war’s end (the ex-King was thought to be sympathetic to Hitler). Ernest Hemingway and his artsy group were also long time frequent residents who vacated. Reichsmarschall Hermann Goring moved into a sprawling suite taking up an entire floor. On page nineteen, we find out that…”one half of the Hotel Ritz was an exclusive retreat for German private indulgence, on the rue Cambon side of the ancient palace and in the bars and restaurant the hotel remained open to the public.” After the Germans take over the Ritz, Mazzeo gives the reader some background on the hotel from 1898 till the German arrival. I found these chapters very interesting, especially the part where the artist and intellectuals out maneuvered the noble traditionalist (the privileged) for dominance of the bars and rooms. Also provided was the reason for the two sides clashing... the famous Alfred Dreyfus (a framed Jewish artillery officer) treason trial. I also enjoyed the story of Marcel Proust, a social climber, who wrote one of France’s great books, "In Search of Lost Time" , which was written in seven parts between 1913-1927.Once the Germans take over the Hotel Ritz, we find out that Herr Goring is a morphine addict. A German doctor from Cologne supposedly had a “wonder cure” and “There in the Hotel Ritz, the doctor would come to submerge Goring in a tub of water, give him injections, then submerge him again, for hours and hours,” the staff remembered. “We had to bring the professor piles of towels and lots of food, because the procedure made Goring ravenous.” On page fifty one, we find out…”That the previous occupant of Goring's suite was a certain Laura Mae Corrigan, the widow of a midwestern steel industrialist...Her monthly income in the summer of 1940 was $800,000.” Corrigan sold many treasures to the Reichsmarschall and Adolf Hitler. “She cashed out-some said she sold out-to the Nazis.” This is one of many chapters containing the escapades of the residents of the hotel. Another sidebar to this book is the battle of wits between journalists Ernest Hemingway, Robert Capa, Martha Gellhorn, and Mary Welsh to be the first to land on Normandy Beach during the allied invasion in August 1944. Their sexual affairs are another story in this rousing book. Previously, I hinted to you that this book was filled with juicy information, am I right so far? Meanwhile, Frank Meier, the longtime bartender at the Ritz is passing information along to the French Resistance. The Germans didn’t know he was Jewish. And surprisingly, the plot to kill Hitler (Operation Valkyrie) was hatched at the grand Hotel Ritz.The poop hits the fan when Hitler orders General Dietrich Von Choltitz into Paris in August 1944 to plunder all the treasures and artwork and then upon leaving... burn Paris to the ground! Do you remember that famous film "Is Paris Burning?" Believe it or not, I only touched on a few chapters of this exciting book. To get the rest of the scoop, get your own copy, but read slowly because you are not going to want this book to end. I highly recommend this book, but not to those World War II aficionados who only want the facts involving the strategy and results of the war. You will not find that in this book.

I am a lover of all things French and whenever in Paris, I always make it a point to stop at The Ritz for dinner and to walk around the Place Vendome (can't wait to see what The Ritz will look like after their 2 yr renovation project).This book describes itself as covering what went on at the hotel during WW II when the Nazi high-command was living there along with a few other notable individuals (Coco Chanel, Hemingway, Capa, and more). Each chapter covers a particular person or group of people or particular incident that transpired having some connection with The Ritz. The book should have actually been called "Hemingway at The Ritz" since most of the book talks about his experiences at the hotel.Although the author has an extensive "Notes" section at the back of the book, many of the items referenced are memoirs written by the same people that the author writes about - which leads me to wonder how much one can believe about what is written in this book. The author takes liberties in assuming to know what individuals are thinking which is never good in a non-fiction book.The chapters are organized in a forward timeline (i.e., start of the war and ends in the 1960's). Each chapter is basically self-standing and does leave the reader wanting more information or conclusion or follow-up. There is a small photo at the beginning of each chapter and these are the only photos in the book. The photos are printed on the same paper stock as the book (ugh!). A more interesting piece on The Ritz and its occupants during WW II is the Vanity Fair magazine article published a couple of years ago. This article also has a really great selection of photos.Inaccuracies abound in this book: as an example, the author tells us that the Duke and Duchess of Windsor - who stayed at The Ritz for a period of time during the War - eventually were "...shipped off to Bermuda....to spend the remaining war years there...." Really? (eyes rolling now) Had the author done her homework she would have known that they were "shipped" off to Nassau in the Bahamas where he was Governor General there for the rest of the War years. Yes, they were in Bermuda FOR ONE WEEK as a stopover on their way to Nassau.I blame myself for not reading any of the reviews prior to purchasing this book. If you buy this book, read it with a HUGE grain-of-salt.

Tilar J. Mazzeo's book is beautifully written and by reference to the Notes and Selected Bibliography pp 243-276 is professionally researched. The narrative flows easily from a brief introduction to the major actors and the inauguration of the Ritz hotel, Paris on 1 June 1898. However, the greater part of the story is set in the 1940s onwards, in particular the period from 10 May 1940, when France came under Nazi occupation, concluding with the hotel's purchase, following the death of Ritz's son, Charles, who was the last member of the Ritz family to own the hotel to Mr Mohamed Al Fayed for $20 million US Dollars in 1979. But in truth, it's the major actors which give this historiography the shear interest and at times dark tension. It was the late Charles (Caesar) Ritz wife, Marie-Louise Ritz who made the decision to remain open during the occupation, which in fact enabled much of what took place to do so with minimal damage to the hotel and acting as a catalyst for many of the interrelated situations. The cast of characters includes Reichmarshal Hermann Goering (or Goring, take your pick on the spelling), who by then was losing favour with Hitler and was busy adding to his personal art collection, not to mention his drug addiction and a bit of cross-dressing thrown in for good measure. Then we have Irwin Shaw - journalist - who would become a well-known author of novels such as Rich Man, Poor Man, which was made into a blockbuster TV series; Coco Chanel, who after the death of her lover, Boy Capel, spent much of the remainder of her life as a resident; Lee Miller (Lady Penrose) who as a war photographer took some of the first harrowing photographs of Dachau concentration camp; Martha Gellhorn who had an affair with Major-General James Gavin and ended up arriving in Paris, beating her subsequent husband, Ernest Hemingway, who in his frequently 'well-oiled' state intended to liberate the Ritz from the Nazis. Quite how has never been clear. To the list of 'well-knows' can be added Arletty Bathiat, an extraordinary motion-picture actress; Robert Capa, another war photographer who went ashore with the American troops on D-Day. He and another actress, Ingrid Bergman, would have a year-long affair at the Ritz. Last but not least are Claude and Blanche Auzello who manage the hotel for some forty years. Their retirement is a bit different to the rest of us! These are but a few of the frequent and in some cases long-term residents of the Ritz, Paris that Tilar J. Mazzeo intriguingly and with great care and skill introduces throughout the book. It is a book that tells a series of interconnected life stories and is highly recommended. If you enjoy this, then you might also want to consider Tilar J. Mazzeo's 'The Secret of Chanel No. 5' and 'The Widow Cliquot'. Enjoy your summer reading.

I read a lot of historical biographies so I’m pretty used to the different takes authors make when writing someone’s (in this case something’s) story. The book has an extremely poor layout. Each chapter is supposed to be about a person but the author clearly doesn’t have enough content so the chapter always becomes about someone else before it ends with however the person’s story is supposed to end, except not really because that person can show up in another chapter. It feels like the whole book is anecdotes and the author is trying to flesh them out to make a book.For instance the first chapter is supposed to be about Marcel Proust, but the whole Proust thing takes up about one page, the rest is a tangent on a bunch of other people, and concludes with the author’s imagined story of what Proust feels on the opening of the Ritz.At the end of the chapter we aren’t even told what happens to the person that chapter was about. What happened to the bartender? Von Choltitz? Aurello gets some kind of an ending, but her story seems much more interesting than the other gives space for.Also the “cast of characters” is a sign of a poor writer. You wouldn’t need a 5 page cast of characters if you made the stories worthwhile enough to remember and didn’t load the reader down with name after name. Have fun with the chapter on Mandel’s death. There’s like 5 stories in that one chapter and they all include a bunch of long, hard to remember German names. Most of the time I forgot who most of the people were (except for the most famous).The stories are probably pretty fascinating,, but are completely ruined by an awful writer, and their inability to find a comprehensible plot structure.

Subtitled, "Life, Death and Betrayal at the Hotel Ritz in Paris," this book begins with the 1940 Occupation of Paris by the Nazi's, before backtracking to the Ritz opening in 1898. Paris in 1898 was split by the scandal known as the Dreyfus Affair, which divided the aristocracy from the traditionalists of the Belle-Epoque and the new, upcoming artists and intellectuals. The author uses Marcel Proust as an example of one of the new modern supporters of Dreyfus, who claimed the Ritz as their home - artists, intellectuals and outcasts. Proust is again identified during a chapter set during WWI, to show how the war was largely ignored in the Ritz. However, most of this book is set before and after the Second World War, by which time Proust had died and this kind of thread is one which weakens the book in my opinion, by not carrying throughout the storyline.The author sets the scene of the occupation of Paris well. The elderly Marie-Louise Ritz, widow of the founder Cesar Ritz, had to make the decision of whether or not to keep the hotel open, with only a skeleton staff remaining as most people fled Paris as the German army advanced. Warned that the building might be requisitioned and that she may never get it back, she decided to take advice to stay open, with the help of her Swiss Director, Claude Aurcello. Indeed, The Ritz remained, "a Switzerland in Paris," throughout the war. The fact that it consisted of two separate buildings, connected by a long corridor, meant that there was a natural partition between the German high-ranking officers and the smaller building, which remained open to the public; including artists, writers, film stars, playwrights, fashion designers and a smattering of spies. There were no uniforms or weapons in public spaces and the French and Germans mixed amicably - often neutrality crossed the line into collaboration. Although we read of those involved, such as Goering, Coco Chanel, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor or Laura Mae Corrigan, wealthy widow of an American industrialist, too often their story seems to stop during the Occupation. The author backtracks sometimes with the potted history of Chanel during the war years, or tells us briefly the story of Corrigan, but often they are fleeting glimpses. The detail is mainly before the Occupation and after it.The book really comes into its own after the Occupation, with the American press racing to Paris to cover the liberation. Ernest Hemingway, Robert Capa, Marlene Dietrich and Ingrid Bergman all arrived as the Germans fled the city. There was mob justice for many who had seen as collaborating with the Germans, and the realisation by many who had lived the war in comfort at the Ritz that there would be a reckoning for a war spent in luxury. This is a tale of plotting, love affairs, betrayals and espionage, which I really enjoyed. However, I did somehow feel that there was another story within this book, which was never really told and that was the story of the Ritz during the war. I would have liked at least one chapter for each year of the occupation, documenting all the interesting stories which I felt were so briefly touched upon. The bartender who was only one member of the staff involved in espionage, for example, or refugees who were hidden in the rooms under the very noses of the German high command. Or even how Parisians felt about those who lived in such close proximity with the enemy, while they suffered oppression and shortages of food and fuel. In other words, this was something of a missed opportunity for me - a good book, which could have been great. Still a good read though, especially if you are interested in the liberation of Paris and the aftermath of war there.

A good micro-history of a high class hotel in Paris & its patrons. Especially fascinating on Coco Chanel and her collaboration with the Nazis, 1940-45.

A wonderful account of life within one of the most famous hotels in the world, full of strange and eccentric characters - well known people who made it their bolt hole in Paris during the Second World War.