France: hotels or attractions?

France: hotels or attractions?
Ritz Hotel in Paris may lose the title of the most luxurious hotel of Paris to L'hôtel de la Marine

In France was brought about a scandal about the intentions of the authorities of Paris to lease several iconic sights of the country. In particular, the public has criticized French President Nicolas Sarkozy for the government's plans to convert L'hôtel de la Marine – a palace on the Place de la Concorde in Paris – in a luxury hotel.

L'hôtel de la Marine is one of the most magnificent palaces in France. Its interiors and furnishings can compete with luxury furnishings and main palace of France - Versailles.

Long-term leasing of the legendary palace was offered by the French Ministry of Finance, according to the representatives of the Ministry. France alone cannot afford to fund the reconstruction of hundreds of rooms of the palace and intends to attract to this case potential investors. Creation on the base of L'hôtel de la Marine a luxury hotel with a pool is an idea that does not seem to the French Government so much wild.

To date L'hôtel de la Marine is in the list of national treasure monuments of France. The palace building is now occupied by the headquarters of the French Naval Forces Staff. It is expected that in 2014 the military will abandon the palace. Subsequent transformation of L'hôtel de la Marine in the hotel will make the area of the Place de la Concorde into a luxury tourist destination in Paris, because not far from the palace is located one of the best hotels in France - Hôtel de Crillon.

At the same time not everybody share the optimism of the French authorities. A number of representatives of French historians and public figures oppose the transformation of the palace into the hotel. Among those, who consider such an option of reconstruction as barbarism - the former French President Giscard d'Estaing.
Several well-known public figures of France sent to the President Nicolas Sarkozy a letter, in which they called the idea of turning the palace on the Place de la Concorde into a hotel a “commercial circus”, according to the British edition the Telegraph.

It is worth noting that the situation with L'hôtel de la Marine is not the only case for the famous monuments of France. Most recently, one of the buildings of the park ensemble of Versailles - Hotel du Grand Control - was transferred into the long-term lease and will be used as a hotel. In general, alteration of landmarks of France may affect not only Paris. The candidates for removal from the attraction list to the category of hotels are: a castle in Burgundy, the historic fortress of Chateau Fontainebleau in Carcassonne, the estate of Saint-Cloude and the Fort of Saint-Andre in Garda.

Date: 19/01/2011

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