Arthur Millon

Arthur Millon was one of the great entrepreneurs of Parisian hospitality at the turn of the twentieth century. Already master of the Café de la Paix and the Grand-Hôtel, he took control of Le Meurice and turned it into a modern palace able to rival the brand-new Ritz.

A restaurant magnate

Born on 7 March 1852 in Bernouil, a village in the Yonne, according to Wikimedia records, Millon left little trace of his early years, but his business is well documented. He owned the Pavillon Ledoyen in the gardens of the Champs-Élysées and ran the restaurant Weber on rue Royale, two addresses beloved of Belle Époque Paris. He then acquired the concession of the Café de la Paix, opposite the Opéra, and took control of the Grand-Hôtel next door, built in 1861–1862 by a company of the Pereire brothers. Sources differ on the date: 1 September 1897 according to one account, 1901 according to another.

At the Grand-Hôtel he modernised boldly. In 1905 the main entrance was moved to rue Scribe and the courtyard became a winter garden designed by the architect Henri-Paul Nénot. He was also involved in the creation of rue Édouard-VII, a new street of elegant buildings near the Madeleine. Through these addresses, his group held some of the most fashionable tables and rooms of the capital.

Reinventing Le Meurice

Le Meurice, founded by Charles-Augustin Meurice and installed on rue de Rivoli since 1835, needed a new lease of life to compete with the Ritz on place Vendôme. A limited company had owned the hotel since 1898; Millon, one of its shareholders and soon its master, called in the Swiss hotelier Frédéric Schwenter. According to the Historic Hotels of the World association, Millon headed the hotel’s management company by 1905 and, with Schwenter as director, launched a renovation costing some 8 million francs.

The hotel absorbed the neighbouring Hôtel Métropole on rue de Castiglione, and the architect Henri-Paul Nénot rebuilt the interiors entirely behind the protected façades, keeping the original Louis XVI style. The work, begun in 1905, was completed in 1907. Guests discovered bathrooms, telephones, electric bells to summon staff and a lift modelled on Marie Antoinette’s sedan chair.

A lasting imprint

The new Meurice soon drew royalty: Alfonso XIII of Spain was the first monarch to stay there, and later lived there in exile. Millon died on 29 September 1913 and left his hotel empire to his son André. The group remained in the family until it was sold in 1972, after disputes over the succession. Today the Café de la Paix, whose interior was listed as a historic monument in 1975, and Le Meurice, a palace of the Dorchester Collection, still bear the stamp of his ambition.

Sources Wikipedia (EN), “Le Meurice” · Wikipédia (FR), « Le Meurice » · Wikipedia (EN), “Café de la Paix” · Wikipédia (FR), « InterContinental Paris Le Grand » · PSS-Archi, “Hôtel Meurice” · Historic Hotels of the World, “Meurice, Charles-Augustin” · Wikimedia Commons, “Category:Arthur Millon”