THE STORY BEHIND THE HOTEL · PARIS SEASON · EPISODE 10
At 19 Avenue Kléber, Paris has sounded like taxi horns on a piano, whispered like diplomacy behind closed doors, and returned—after war, bureaucracy and reconstruction—as one of the city’s most ambitious palace hotels.
Some hotels preserve a style. The Peninsula Paris preserves changes of purpose. It began in 1908 as the Hôtel Majestic, served the machinery of occupation, became a stage for international institutions and peace agreements, and reopened in 2014 after an immense restoration. Its story is not a straight line of glamour; it is a century in which hospitality, power and memory repeatedly changed rooms.
Before the hotel: a queen’s Paris address
The site first carried the Palais de Castille, home of the exiled Spanish queen Isabella II. After her death in Paris in 1904, the residence gave way to a new kind of monument: a modern grand hotel for an age of steamships, diplomacy and international society. Developer Léonard Tauber commissioned architect Armand Sibien, and the Majestic opened in 1908 behind a grand Beaux-Arts façade.
Its reinforced-concrete structure made generous public rooms possible; its roof garden and private bathrooms were striking signs of modernity. The address was close to the Arc de Triomphe, yet sufficiently removed from the busiest boulevard to feel like a world of its own.
A hotel inside world history
During the First World War, the building was used as a hospital. In 1919 the British delegation to the Paris Peace Conference made the Majestic its operational hub. After the war, the hotel again drew the artistic world: James Joyce, Marcel Proust, Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky are among the documented names in the hotel’s own archive.
The most difficult chapter came with the German occupation of Paris, when the building became headquarters of the German military command in France. After liberation, its function changed again. From 1946 to 1958 it housed UNESCO’s first headquarters; later it served France as an international conference centre. The glamour of the old Majestic was gone, but the building’s influence had not diminished—it had moved from society to statecraft.
IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK
The taxi horns on Gershwin’s piano
George Gershwin arrived in Paris with his brother Ira on 25 March 1928 and stayed at the Majestic for almost four weeks. Fascinated by the city’s street sounds, he bought several Paris taxi horns along Avenue de la Grande Armée and placed them on top of his piano. Friends Mario Braggiotti and Jacques Fray sounded them while Gershwin demonstrated the opening idea of An American in Paris.
The detail is more than a charming anecdote. It captures what a great hotel can do: give a traveller a room from which a city can be heard differently. The concert work, composed that spring and premiered in New York in December 1928, still carries those horns—Parisian traffic translated into music.
From diplomacy to agreements
On 27 January 1973, the Paris Peace Accords on Vietnam were signed at 19 Avenue Kléber. Contemporary U.S. diplomatic records describe the handshakes and champagne that followed the signing ceremony. The agreement did not deliver the durable peace its title promised—the war continued until 1975—but the building remains inseparable from that decisive diplomatic moment. In 1991 it also hosted the Paris agreements on Cambodia.
This is where the hotel’s history resists easy nostalgia. The same rooms were used by occupiers, international civil servants and negotiators attempting to end wars. To tell the building honestly is to keep all those chapters in view.
The four-year return to hospitality
When The Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels took charge of the project in 2009 with Katara Hospitality, the aim was not simply to decorate an old shell. The structure had to be reinforced for a programme roughly 80 percent heavier than before; foundations were rebuilt, a spa excavated below ground and historic ballrooms recovered. More than 900 craftspeople and workers participated. Stone, slate, wood, plaster and decorative metalwork were either restored or remade with unusually close attention.
The Peninsula Paris opened on 1 August 2014, the first Peninsula hotel in Europe. Architect Richard Martinet led the restoration of the public areas, while Henry Leung shaped upper-floor interiors. The result is intentionally double-sided: French monumental architecture outside; a mix of French craftsmanship and Peninsula’s Asian identity within.
The hotel today: 200 rooms, 93 suites, one Paris horizon
The hotel currently describes 200 rooms, including 93 suites. The numbers matter less than the way the best suites use the roofline. The Rooftop Garden Suite has a vast terrace; the Rooftop Eiffel Suite frames the tower; the 217-square-metre Historic Suite emphasises the building itself; the Katara Suite adds a rooftop garden; and the 318-square-metre Peninsula Suite is the flagship residence.
Technology is integrated discreetly, while “Peninsula Time” can offer flexible arrival and departure for eligible direct bookings, subject to the hotel’s current terms. The more lasting luxury, however, is spatial: terraces where monuments become the room’s final wall.
Restaurants above the city
On the sixth floor, L’Oiseau Blanc takes its name from the aircraft in which French aviators Charles Nungesser and François Coli attempted a transatlantic crossing in 1927. A biplane replica appears suspended outside, while the restaurant’s panorama turns Paris into part of the composition. Chef David Bizet’s restaurant holds two Michelin stars in the 2026 guide.
LiLi interprets Cantonese cuisine in a theatrical room that combines Haussmannian proportions with Chinese references. Le Lobby is the grand everyday stage; Le Bar Kléber and rooftop spaces extend the hotel beyond the ritual of a room night.
Below the monument
The spa occupies the improbable space created beneath the historic building. Its 20-metre indoor pool, treatment rooms, private spa suites and vitality pools make it one of the most extensive hotel wellness addresses in Paris. The engineering required to put this volume below a protected urban presence is part of the story; the calm guests encounter is the polished final effect.
Why travellers still choose it
For location, certainly: the Arc de Triomphe and Champs-Élysées are close, while Trocadéro and the Eiffel Tower are within an elegant walk. For rooftop views, large suites and serious dining, too. But The Peninsula Paris offers something rarer than convenience. A guest can stay inside a building that has been hotel, hospital, command post, UNESCO headquarters and conference centre—then wake to the contemporary rituals of a palace.
Travellers do not have to know every chapter to feel the gravity of the place. Yet knowing them changes the stay. The building stops being a backdrop and becomes a witness.
Practical location
- Address: 19 Avenue Kléber, 75116 Paris, France.
- Nearest Métro: Kléber (Line 6); Charles de Gaulle–Étoile is also nearby.
- Landmarks: Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées, Trocadéro and Eiffel Tower.
- Official hotel: The Peninsula Paris.
Watch: The Peninsula Paris
An official film by The Peninsula Hotels offers a current visual introduction to the terraces, gardens and Paris views discussed above.
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OUISTARS Travel’s editorial selection is independent. This article does not imply a partnership, sponsorship, complimentary stay or endorsement by the hotel. Availability, rates, taxes and cancellation conditions are confirmed before any commitment.
Editorial sources
The Peninsula / historical facts · HSH 150-year history · The making of The Peninsula Paris · U.S. Office of the Historian · Gershwin official archive · Michelin Guide France 2026. Historical claims were checked against institutional or primary sources; current facilities may change.
Image note: public-domain and Creative Commons archive images are credited individually. Official hotel images are used editorially and require fresh clearance before any future print or commercial reprint.
Osama Samaha
Editor-in-Chief — OUISTARS Travel
