At its 1972 opening the star of Paris, Le Meridien Paris-Etoile returns to its seventies airlines glamour.

In 1972 Air France created Le Meridien Hotels to provide its customers with “a home away from home” in every corner of the world. Well at least, every French speaking corner of the world. In those days Paris was still the capital of the world for many and thus it was no surprise that Le Meridien opened its flagship property here. Visions of the future were great, people where flying on Jumbo 747′s, so the Le Meridien Paris-Etoile with its 1025 airliner styled bedrooms (read: small) was the embodiment of that vision. Until today Le Meridien-Paris Etoile remains Paris largest hotel. The 33-floor Concorde La Fayette Hotel of 1974 origins across the street ‘only’ has 950 rooms. Both hotels cater to the Paris Congress Centre at Porte Maillot.

The seventies went out of style and so did the Le Meridien flagship hotel. In the early 1990′s Le Meridien no longer was a core business for Air France and it was sold to UK hotel giant Forte, which was taken over by Granada, which merged, de-merged, split-up and sold once again before finally getting acquired by Lehman Brothers and Starwood Hotels. Now Le Meridien is one of the Starwood brands, like Sheraton, Westin and lifestyle brands W Hotels and Aloft. Le Meridien’s European image fits the bill for the design and art savvy properties of Le Meridien.

So finally Le Meridien’s “grande dame” will get its former 70′s glamour back. With designs by Jean-Philippe Nuel, designer of many hotels on stylehotelsweb Le Meridien Paris-Etoile will take back its first class’ 747 position. The Le Meridien is gradually being renovated floor-by-floor. For now make sure to book one of the ‘executive’ rooms which boasts the Nuel design. Still small in size, but hey, this is Paris.