Conjured up during Baron Haussmann's extensive urban renewal program in the nineteenth century, and freshly renovated by master designer Pierre-Yves Rochon, the Grand Hotel and its Café de la Paix occupy a choice location among the Parisian facades surrounding Paris's Opera Garnier. This bilingual edition retraces the history of the Belle Époque palace with its 458 rooms and suites, where visitors from all over the world meet under the glass roof of its winter garden. The Café de la Paix safeguards its authenticity by serving up iconic recipes-from the famed onion soup to the flaky mille-feuille-on the celebrated terrace that overlooks the boulevard des Capucines. In 1904, the Grand Hôtel's head barman Franck Newman invented the original dry Martini as a tribute to avant-garde actress Sarah Bernhardt, a regular guest.

The café has been a meeting-place for notables from Oscar Wilde to Ernest Hemingway, Marlene Dietrich to Ines de la Fressange, and John Travolta to President Bill Clinton. Blending architecture, history, and timeless luxury, this volume celebrates the hotel and café that were at the epicenter of the most cherished era in Parisian history.