Page 324 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

never left her room – heirs of industrial empires, such as Lord very modest by today’s standards. By the same token, prices were officers, who had come to the hotel in happier days, found refuge there rituals of society life. Dinner at a fixed time and in evening dress,
Guinness and the Irish billionaire Whalton and political figures, like such that the luxury hotel remained accessible to a certain number of at the end of the war. The royal families of Yugoslavia, Albania and promenade in the park or on the lake, attendance in the Rotonde or
Antoine Pinay, Jean Monnet and Azzam Pasha, architect of the Arab relatively penniless aristocrats or heirs. The average length of stay was especially Romania were frequently to be seen in the hotel corridors, on the terrace for the concerts given by the Beau-Rivage orchestra
League. Alan Dulles, the director of the cia, established one of his significantly longer than today: it was reckoned in weeks, months or sometimes in dramatic circumstances. The Queen Mother Helen, – which played not so much to be heard as to provide a background
bases at the Beau-Rivage Palace – it is easy to imagine a certain seasons more often than in days. As a result, the Beau-Rivage Palace King Michael and his wife Anne of Bourbon-Parma were there in for the conversations. Over the years, some regular visitors became
number of hushed negotiations taking place there. As a young seems like a place governed by the way of life and seasonal rhythms November 1947, on the run from the Communists. In August 1940, attached to the region and bought properties there. Social networks
child, Philippe Visson met Jacqueline Kennedy on several occasions, of an already outmoded society with conservative customs and style. the Princes Alexander and Nicolas of Yugoslavia arrived at the Beau- were maintained. Friends were visited, they came to the hotel, conversed
together with her younger sister, Princess Caroline Lee Radziwill, According to Philippe Visson, this would explain the almost complete Rivage Palace, accompanied by a number of ministers and diplomats or played bridge. It was not done to talk business: it is impossible
née Bouvier. A number of Greek shipping magnates and their absence of artists and literary figures, who were attracted by more – for what negotiations, what agreements, what surrenders? to know if the representatives of the industrial world whose names
entourages took quarters there each summer. A rich American family, modern establishments. The changes came during the 1960s, when Wars are difficult times for the hotel business. Few visitors and are in the Livre des Étrangers (Bata, Guerlain, a few rich Americans)
the McCanns, left the United States during Prohibition and settled the Scrabble players slowly took over from the bridge players in the a reduced staff. The machine just ticks over. There are practically no were there for business or pleasure. Certainly the family of the
at the Beau-Rivage Palace, where they would occupy a suite on hotel’s lounges. signatures in the guestbook for the years 1940 to 1945. The hotel’s Parisian publisher Baillière only came in the summer, for the holidays.
the fourth floor for more than a quarter of a century. Lastly, there The post-war years attracted a few names to the Beau-Rivage visitors, when there were any, had little desire to draw attention to People from the world of cinema and stage were already
were the film actors. William Holden and James Stewart spent their Palace from the literary and art scene of the interwar period. Some of themselves. A few travellers caught unawares by the war and unable there. Some left their signatures in the guestbook, which the young
holidays at Beau-Rivage with their families. Richard Burton and Liz these were former habitués going back to their past: Francis Poulenc to leave Switzerland took up residence at the Beau-Rivage Palace. A André Muller had the bright idea of starting for himself. Guitry,
Taylor stayed for a week – Liz came for dental treatment and it seems and Bruno Walter, the pianist Alexandre Brailowsky, Maurice glance at the Livre des Étrangers, where the arrival of all foreign visitors already making an appearance, started things rolling in March 1935.
that it took its toll on her mood. Charlie Chaplin, Peter Ustinov and Chevalier, Somerset Maugham, Pierre Fresnay and Yvonne Printemps, is recorded, shows that the Phoney War, the rout and the start of the Over the years that followed, the names of Pierre Fresnay and Yvonne
their families dropped in as they were staying near by, Jean Seberg Mary Pickford, Sacha Guitry (the only one in the history of the guest Occupation did not bring with them a wave of high-class refugees. Printemps – again – Jacqueline Delubac, Douglas Fairbanks, Maurice
visited, Jules Dassin and his wife Melina Mercouri had a lengthy stay books to praise something other than the hotel itself: ‘Rien n’est plus The absence of a guestbook up to 1939 is fortunately Chevalier and Marlene Dietrich were added. They did not come for
there, Gary Cooper and Gregory Peck passed through in 1953 and beau que ce qu’on voit de ma fenêtre en ce moment – on voit la France’ compensated, as far as the 1920s and 1930s are concerned, by the shoots or promotional campaigns, but for their own pleasure, for their
Ginger Rogers signed the guestbook in 1952. In addition, there were [Nothing is more beautiful than what I can see from my window at memories of André Muller, son of the Beau-Rivage Palace’s manager free time, for a rest – or for a love affair? André Muller recalls the
a number of unusual characters who lived at the hotel for the year the moment – I can see France]). Further down in the book – two Werner Muller. Before becoming a doctor and opening a surgery in visits of celebrated writers, Somerset Maugham, Edmond Jaloux and
or the season. The young Philippe Visson and the hotel staff shared signatures face each other, the great soprano Kirsten Flagstad and the town, André Muller spent his childhood and youth in the hotel’s Francis Scott Fitzgerald. The American composer Courtland Palmer
the habit of giving them nicknames based on some quirky character Richard Strauss. The composer spent several months at the Beau- corridors. He knew what went on behind the scenes, in the kitchens, stayed at the hotel all year round. Serge Lifar spent several months
trait. There was a tiger hunter, an ace Luftwaffe pilot, a card player, an Rivage Palace in the spring of 1949. He occupied the best apartment, the linen room and the workshops. He knew the atmosphere of there. Olga Ruiz-Picasso was a regular guest.
adventuress, a countess with her aviary, a prince with a passion for where a Steinway was installed for his benefit. He died a few months the place. At that time, the Beau-Rivage Palace was not the solitary Aristocrats and royalty dominated the scene. André Muller’s
toys and so on. later at Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It is said that at least one of the Four vessel it is today. It was anchored in the town of Ouchy, all of whose diary lists a succession of names from Alfonso xiii, King of Spain,
All these people lived well-regulated lives. They took their Last Songs was composed at the Beau-Rivage. Lastly, despite the fact inhabitants were regular visitors. The people of the hotel worked with his wife Queen Victoria Eugenia and the Infanta María Cristina de
meals at set times, at their own reserved tables, the same from one that the guestbook bears no evidence of her stay, we know that the them, saw them around, knew them. The tea dances, particularly the Borbon y Battenberg, to the Duke and Duchess of Kent, the Count
year to the next. Regular guests not only found their same room Divine Woman herself, Greta Garbo, visited the hotel several times. one on a Thursday evening, attracted a crowd. People went there from and Countess of Paris, the Aga Khan, and the Baron de Gourgaud.
again, but also the trunk they had left behind with their wardrobe. During the war years and immediately afterwards, royalty Lausanne, and the student societies were in the habit of organising André Muller was very young: his playmates were Rainier of Monaco
In the 1950s, high society’s rituals were still very strict. They were dominated the hotel’s history. Some regal guests were brought there their balls there. ‘Ray Ventura et ses collégiens’, for example, came down and the children of the Comte de Kergolay, who divided his time
those of a bygone world. Basically, Philippe Visson says today, they by favourable winds, such as Haile Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia, specially from Paris to give a concert there. between Brittany, Paris and the Beau-Rivage Palace. The Livre des
were those of 1920s’ society – in fact, some of the hotel’s permanent who would come to Switzerland to take the waters right up to the André Muller also knew the guests and their way of life. They Étrangers also reveals the names, among hundreds of others, of Prince
guests had been living there since that era. The comforts offered by beginning of the 1970s and the collapse of the empire. Many were came and went to the ancient and seemingly immutable rhythm of Brancovan, the Duchesse de Talleyrand, the Duke of Toledo, Prince
Beau-Rivage, until its modernisation at the end of the 1950s, were driven there by war and by regime change. A number of senior Italian the social season, and, while there, conformed to the no less invariable Nicolas of Romania and Princess Alice Sturdza. Lastly, the titles of a

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