About our Logo

The N°5 Sign in the Grand Hotels of the World logo
is part of the history of Cremerie de Paris.



Back in 1640 the "5" sign was forged into the railings
of a staircase for the house of Nicolas "V" de Villeroy.
At that time Villeroy knew he would soon
become the teacher of the 3rd Bourbon King of France, Louis XIV
The Sunking arrived at our house in 1646
when he was 7 years old.
He loved the place,
also because of the children of his teacher,
Francois and Calmille de Villeroy.
Adults they all vived in Versailles.

Coco Chanel discovered our staircase in 1921
through Dmitri Romanov.
She instantly fell in Love with Romanov and the Cremerie de Paris.
Romanov who was 8 years younger
and she loved all the fairytales he told her about Cremerie de Paris.
Sadly their Love Story did not last
but what remained is N°5
the interlocking CC logo
and a little jewel.


1938 Chanel met a fascinating young Brazilian
not realising Aimée de Heeren was a secret service agent
and the girlfriend of Joe Kennedy Jr.
1939 Aimée escaped to New York
and the two fashionistas did not see each other for two decades.
1960 they met again in Paris.


1960s Coco Chanel suffered from insomania.
Often she walked from her home the Hotel Ritz
to the les Halles foodmarket open all night.
Sometimes she was accompanied by Aimée
who loved parties and sometime came home late at night.
1970 Christmas shortly before leaving this World
Chanel gave the little Romanov jewel to Aimée.



Aimée missed Chanel's company
walking through Paris during the night.
1986 she met a young student who love to accompany her.
The student loved to listen to all her crazy and funny stories.
Many had happend in Grand Hotels.
Later the student found out that Aimée
had been at the Opening Reception of the Copacabana Palace.
The student opened a little shop for Sony phones
right next to the legendary Cremerie de Paris.



1993 Cremerie de Paris was for sale.
The Sony Phone Shop was doing well
but not well enough to get a loan to buy the famous place.
Aimée took the decision
to sell her beloved jewel
as if Coco Chanel, that had already left
this world two decades before,
had decided to continue the Story.


Cremerie de Paris turned into
an avant-garde Internet Cafe.
So avant-garde the electricity company did not
stop to cut power as there were too little customers.
Eraly Internet was a time full of troubles.
On the other hand the concierges of the nearby Hotels
Ritz, Meurice and Crillon wanted the magic place to survive
so they send all their American clients
asking for something annoying like "web access" or "email"


Jon Postel, the inventor of dot com
advised to register iconic web domains.
Steve Jobs gave us an iMac so Apple would become part of the story.
And Apoloo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin influenced us to create
the Phone Book of the World.
There were many young people as well
travelling through Europe with a back-pack.

Unfortunatlry we did not keep a Guestbook.
And many tech pioneers have come by
without Cremerie de Paris realising who they were.
Maybe they did not know it themselves ...

From time to time someone returns
not with a "Backpack"
but with a "Pop Up Store"
for a brand he has created in the meantime.

Coco Chanel would probably be happy
to see all what her little jewel has made possible
including the the internet domain
"Grand Hotels of the World.com"
filed from the Internet Cafe 18-04-2003
during evening hours sitting behind the cafe desk.

Her Stories and the ones of her magical friend Aimee
are inside many of the Grand Hotels ...