Puttin' on the Ritz

Famed Ritz Paris set to reopen with new level of luxury after 3-1/2-year renovation

When the doors open on the Ritz Paris in March after a three-and-a half-year restoration, sighs of relief will be heard from discriminating travelers around the world that the grand dame of Parisian luxury hotels is back.

Those worried that the 114-year-old hotel might suffer the modernization indignations of other five-star Paris properties, Ritz general manager Christian Boyens offers au contraire.

"Most important, the Ritz will stay the Ritz . . . but behind the walls, you will find a hotel that is totally 2016," he told CultureMap during a select media lunch at Tony's.

Restoration by the numbers:

* The original 160 rooms reduced to 71 rooms and 71 suites, 15 of those one-of-a-kind Prestige Suites

* All closets and bathrooms enlarged

* 124 containers of antiques restored

* 1,200 workers on site every day to reach completion, with 550 staff now back on the payroll, 620 staff when the hotel opens

* 40,000 bottles of wine, including cognacs from the 1800s, moving back to the hotel

* Six designer stores in the hotel's luxe arcade

"It really was a passionate project," Boyens said. "A lot of passionate people were involved."

Architect designer Thierry W Despont was responsible for the restoration of the historic grand hotel with the assigned goal of preserving its opulent classicism and Empire style while growing in sync with the 21st century. Boyens describes the new rooms as "your little Parisian apartment in the heart of Paris with rich residential fabrics and fine finishes." That includes the iconic gold-plated swan fixtures in the bathrooms.

With the renovation several additions have been made, including a tunnel connecting the Place Vendome with the hotel's underground garage, offering guests complete privacy. A retractable roof has been added to the interior winter garden making it a year-round leafy green setting.

Boyens shared that as part of the project, Ritz owner billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed purchased a bank building next door to the hotel for an expansion that includes a Chanel spa and a large garden designed like a private park.

When the hotel closed in the summer of 2012 for a then-estimated two year refurbishment, estimates were that the project would cost 200 million euros. One can only imagine the final tally.

According to the hotel website, lowest room ratees typically range from 1,100 euros ($1,110) to 2,900 euros ($3,167) a night depending on dates.

The Ritz Hotel reopens in March after three and a half years of renovations.

News, Ritz Hotel Paris, Place Vendome, Jan. 2016

Photo Courtesy of The Ritz Hotel

The Ritz Hotel reopens in March after three and a half years of renovations.

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HISTORY CORRECTED

Houston documentary maker helps correct biased Texas historical marker

Photo by Virginia Diaz-Laughlin

Medrano stands in front of the Karankawa marker while filming 'Truly Texas Mexican.'

It's not often that a film has an impact past the box office, but one documentary has helped tell the truth about the Texas Gulf Coast's long-disparaged Karankawa people.

For years, the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and the Karankawa Tribe of Texas have fought for a corrected Texas Historical Commission marker in Corpus Christi. Houstonian Adán Medrano’s 2021 film, Truly Texas Mexican, helped finalize a push that will lead to a long-due correction on July 25.

The old marker was plainly offensive. Not only did it say the Karankawa people had "gained a reputation for savagery," but it repeated the long-discredited claim that they practiced cannibalism — a contention born out of the colonial need to justify violence against the tribe.

Medrano, a San Antonio native who currently lives in Houston, became part of the fight when he stood in front of the marker and made a direct appeal to correct the sign.

"I call upon the historians who live in Texas to come up and stand up and say, 'Take this down. This is a lie,'" he said during a scene in Truly Texas Mexican.

Two of them heard the call. Texas A&M University–Corpus Christi history professor Dr. Peter Moore and historian Dr. Tim Seiter of the University of Texas at Tyler joined the years-long Indigenous effort following the film's release. Led by the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and the Karankawa Tribe of Texas, the academics helped research and draft a replacement that honors them as one of Texas' first peoples.

The marker not only replaces racist mythmaking with scholarship and tribal knowledge, it presents the fact that Karankawa descendants aren't a historical footnote but a living community still present in South Texas today.

Medrano's advocacy here continues his work with the T exas Indigenous Food Project, a nonprofit dedicated to celebrating the Indigenous foodways of Texas and the Americas. But in many ways it is a continuation of a career devoted to amplifying voices rarely heard in popular culture. In 1976, he founded San Antonio's CineFestival, now the nation's longest-running Latine film festival.

At 10 am on July 25, representatives of the Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and the Karankawa Tribe of Texas will unveil the corrected marker, joined by Medrano. Visitors can find it at 6001 Ennis Joslin Rd.

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