Kléber Avenue
Ce point d’intérêt est disponible en audio dans le circuit: Visit Paris, On the Champs Elysées
You’re now walking along the beautiful Kléber Avenue, linking the Arc de Triomphe to the Trocadéro Esplanade for a little over a kilometer. It is one of the twelve avenues designed by Haussmann, all leading to the Place de l’Etoile. On your left, you’ll see the impressive hotel that now stands on the site of the former Palais de Castille. In 1864, a Russian aristocrat decided to build himself a miniature Versailles palace on what was then the King of Rome Street, named in honor of Napoleon I’s son. Soon after, the palace was sold to Queen Isabel II of Spain, who lived there for 36 years while in exile in France. She named it “Palacio Castilla,” in honor of the Spanish crown. When the queen died, an American entrepreneur bought the property and demolished it to build the Hôtel Majestic. This palace, a favorite among Parisian high society during the Belle Époque, would go on to become a historical monument. During World War II, it was seized by the Germans to serve as the headquarters of the Supreme Army Command. Once the war was over, it was handed over to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and became the headquarters of UNESCO. It was here that the Paris Peace Accords, ending the Vietnam War, were signed in 1973, and it was also within these walls that the trial contaminated blood scandal took place in 1999. In 2007, the French government sold the building to the Qatar Hospitality Group, which transformed it into a 5-star luxury hotel under the name Peninsula Paris.
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