The Hôtel Ritz’s origins themselves are fancy – originally an upper-class Parisian’s mansion in the 18th century, the building was designed by legendary architect Mansart. Even before a visitor enters its awning-covered doors, the classic elegance of its façade makes quite an impression. The style championed by Mansart and other architects of his era emphasizes symmetry and classical features. The windows and embellishments of the Ritz echo one another almost repetitively, but relief comes in the building’s surroundings. The Place Vendôme is one of the most beautiful squares in Paris, with elegant facades fanning outward and then back in an impressive circle. Surrounded by warm, gold-glowing stone, even the poorest pedestrian feels a bit like a million bucks.

The mansion became the Hôtel Ritz when it was bought in the late 1800’s by César Ritz. Ritz opened his establishment in 1898, and its classiness caught on immediately. Within a few years, the place was frequented by nobility, (rich) artists and intellectuals, politicians, and millionaires from all over the world. Some of its most notable frequent guests include Charlie Chaplin, Greta Garbo, and Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and England’s King Edward VII. Designer Coco Chanel lived here for nearly thirty years!

With guests this famous, the Ritz’s 100-plus year history has some incredible stories. One of the most astonishing may be Ernest Hemingway’s “liberation” of the hotel after the Second World War. Travelling as a reporter with the American troops, Hemingway managed to be in the first convoy of French and American soldiers to enter the nearly-liberated Paris. His goal, he said all along the long way, was to free the Ritz from the Germans who had made it their headquarters. By the time they arrived, the Germans had surrendered, and Hemingway and the Allied soldiers with him celebrated with the hotel’s staff, by drinking champagne and some of the fine wines they’d hidden away from the Occupying forces.

In 1979, the Ritz family sold the hotel to Mohamed Al-Fayed, who began a renovation project that was completed in 1988. Al-Fayed’s son Dodi and Princess Diana stayed here several times, and it was from here that they embarked on the car ride that would end both their lives in the nearby underpass of the Place de l’Alma.

Today, visitors can sip drinks at the bar named for Hemingway, stay in rooms named for other celebrity frequenters, or learn how to make fine cuisine at the Escoffier cooking school, named for the hotel’s first chef.

The Ritz is a legend among hotels, and its charm is still operating. It offers more than ever the image of a delicate French elegance. It is easy to see why Brown chose the Ritz as Langdon’s Paris hotel: this might be the only place in the city where a man so entangled in mysteries and, soon enough, problems with the police, might be able to get some rest!