PROFILES PARIS’ PENINSULA HOTEL


A bigger change was the decision to fashion out a second marble-floored lobby along the L’avenue des Portugais. As well as providing The Peninsula with a dramatic space in which to make a grand entrance, this area also brings a contemporary feel to the heritage building. A chandelier installation featuring a cascade of 800 crystal “dancing leaves” greets guests. The lobby serves another valuable purpose. “Women like marble floors so their heels can make a click-clacking sound,” says Pimont. “All Peninsulas have to have marble floors. In other rooms in the hotel there is a mixture of wood and marble to satisfy the heritage authorities. More resourcefulness was required to get the lobby


bar the desired shade of white. The heritage organisations were insistent that the room had to be the original colour— which was an ugly shade of green. In what sounds more like


an episode of CSI than an interiors brainstorming session, a sample was sent to a lab in New York, where Peninsula proved that behind the green was actually a white layer. Pimont says he does not know what would have happened if the lab had revealed that behind the white was purple. Perhaps the most important lesson Pimont says


he learned from the renovation experience is not to rush things.


“When the planned opening keeps getting put back,


you have more time to get everything perfect—not just the building but the staff and every other little detail. The worst thing is to rush things or open things in stages. Instead just hold your nerve and hope people like what they eventually see.”


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