Hotel Negresco

After arranging the financing, he hired the great architect of the "café society" Édouard-Jean Niermans to design the hotel and its now famous pink dome.

The spectacular Baccarat 16,309-crystal chandelier in the Negresco's Royal Lounge was commissioned by Czar Nicholas II, who due to the October Revolution was unable to take delivery.

June 26, 1950, he recorded the American version of the song (English lyrics by Jerry Seelen) in New York City with Sy Oliver and his Orchestra.

Madame Jeanne Augier [fr] reinvigorated the hotel with luxurious decorations and furnishings, including an outstanding art collection and rooms with mink bedspreads.

She also popularised it with celebrities; Elton John featured it in the video for his song "I'm Still Standing", and she told Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, that purchasing it would be beyond his means.

[5] Noted for its doormen dressed in the manner of the staff in 18th-century elite bourgeois households, complete with red-plumed postilion hats,[2] the hotel also offers gourmet dining at the Regency-style Le Chantecler restaurant.

It has previously been under the leadership of famous chefs such as Bruno Turbot and Alain Llorca, who left to take over the equally fabled Moulin de Mougins.