The
Hotel George V, named for King
George V of the United Kingdom, opened in 1928. It was financed, at a cost of $31 million (60 million Francs), by American businessman Joel Hillman. It was managed by restaurateur André Terrail, owner of
La Tour d'Argent. Its architect was
Georges Wybo, who had designed the Casino de Deauville and the reconstruction of the Printemps Haussmann following the fire of 1921. The hotel was popular with Americans arriving in France on Transatlantic
ocean liners, as it operated offices in the port of Cherbourg to receive customers on their arrival. Joel Hillman was forced to relinquish the George V to his lenders after the
Wall Street crash of 1929. The George V was bought in 1931 by the banker
François Dupré and a new wing was built by the original architects, containing apartments that could be rented year-round or seasonally, with the residents enjoying the services of the hotel. Dupré brought many ''objets d'art'' to the hotel, including tapestries from Flanders, Boulle furniture, a Renoir and a Dufy. In World War II, during the German occupation, a "round-table" of French and German intellectuals met at the hotel; including the writer
Ernst Jünger, the Nazi legal scholar
Carl Schmitt, the publisher
Gaston Gallimard and the writers
Paul Morand,
Jean Cocteau, and
Henry Millon de Montherlant. In 1996 Saudi businessman
Al-Waleed bin Talal bought the hotel from the
Forte Group, spending $185 million for it. He then spent $120 million renovating the hotel, closing the hotel for two years. He signed a management contract with
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts on November 1, 1997, and the hotel was renamed
Four Seasons Hotel George V. The hotel reopened on December 18, 1999. Starting in 2000, the hotel was voted "Best Hotel in the World" by a number of publications. A distinctive feature includes a lobby and walkways lined with floral displays. ==Le Cinq==