The legend of the Ritz is writ deep in Chanel lore. In 1934, the 51-year-old couturier Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, took a three-room apartment at the hotel on Place Vendôme. The mademoiselle was no stranger to the hotel’s lavishly furnished suites. She had frequented them during her courtship with the British polo player Arthur “Boy” Capel, her great love, in 1908. And she had conducted affairs with the Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and the dance impresario Sergei Diaghilev while staying in its rooms in 1921.
Her residency during the 1930s was marked by extremism and the politics of the far right and left. The shadow of National Socialism was encroaching. Yet Paris, glistening in the twilight of the gilded age, retained its cosmopolitan sparkle: international artists, philosophers and playwrights still congregated in its drinking establishments, all making their contribution to the city’s unique cultural stew.