![Christian Boyens adores his Australian clientele: "You're funny, you're friendly – and you're good for our economy."](/content/dam/images/g/t/g/l/s/3/image.related.afrArticleLead.620x350.gsun7m.png/1482814389435.jpg)
Christian Boyens, the dashing 39-year-old general manager of the Hôtel Ritz Paris for the past six years, has food envy. "Hmmm," he says inspecting the rich burnt orange sauce on my tender roasted duck set off by a yellow pop of pureed corn. Then glancing back at his handsome, yet slightly less visually spectacular crispy skin pan fried salmon, "Je préfère le canard," he shrugs in the direction of his French colleague – just basic enough for my rusty schoolgirl French.
The first bite restores his faith. "Magnifique!" he declares of Bistro Moncur's headline fish dish, as I slice off a swathe of duck breast and transport it on my unused fork to the edge of his plate. "This is a great Australian tradition," I reassure in the face of his protests ("mais non! mais non!") that he cannot steal the food off my plate – it's simply not the Ritz Paris way. "But you're in Sydney now, where sharing is très importante," I chastise.
"Okay, I surrender, " he declares, waving the thick white cloth napkin, then dabbing at his bottom lip; a little smile, a mischievous wink. "Is this what Australians call 'bonding'?" Queue simpatico laughter.
Given we've begun lunch at Bistro Moncur (in Sydney's zippy inner east) on a relaxed, upbeat note, Boyens continues in that vein, revealing that when he first travelled to Australia in 2003 he resolved that once he found the woman for him he would propose in Australia. He might work in the world's most romantic city – but Sydney stole his heart.
![In an age of chains, even luxury chains, the Ritz Paris has no stablemates.](/content/dam/images/g/r/9/n/m/l/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1473123548324.jpg)
"I thought that first time I came here, when I find the woman I want to propose to, I'll do it in Sydney," he explains. "Five years later, I did just that – in the Botanical Gardens behind the Opera House, near the lovely old historic Governor's residence. To my big surprise she said 'yes'. She's a New Yorker, so she's a tough cookie. I tell you, she keeps me in line."
Lavish renovation
Today two have become three: the couple have a small baby. And, of course, Boyens has his other, much bigger baby: the 142-room Ritz Paris. Since he took on the top job there in February 2011, his days have been preoccupied with the hotel's lavish renovation, which cost over €400 million ($590 million). The hotel was also closed for four years, only re-opening last June.
There might be a "grand dame" luxury hotel in every great city from The Peninsula in Hong Kong to Singapore's Raffles and London's The Savoy plus New York's Waldorf Astoria but when it comes to luxury, history, creativity, celebrity thrill – and intrigue – combined, the Ritz Paris is unrivalled. "At the Ritz, nobody pushes you," Marcel Proust once said, while Ernest Hemingway joked he "liberated" the Ritz after World War II.
Founded by the Swiss hotelier César Ritz in 1898 at 15 Place Vendôme, the ultra-famous list in the guest book is so comprehensive, it's virtually dull reading. Suffice to say, if you haven't stayed at the Paris Ritz, chances are you didn't make much impact on the 20th century.
![Fashion designer Coco Chanel lived in an apartment at the Ritz Paris from 1934 until her death in 1971.](/content/dam/images/g/t/1/n/t/6/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1480559575020.jpg)
Most famously, Coco Chanel lived there from 1934 until her death in 1971. (To replicate the experience in the renovated Coco Chanel Suite will set you back €20,000 - $28,800 - to €25,000 a night. Since the renovation, guests have booked it from one to 10 consecutive nights. "They are not the type of guests who would take the shampoo home," Boyens observes.)
Or you can bed down in the Marcel Proust Suite – he liked to jest that he worked at home but went to the Ritz to live.
Bar Hemingway is also back – with its famous catchcry "the night begins and ends at the Ritz Paris", and its roll call of talented ghosts. Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gary Cooper and of course Papa Hemingway, along with countless others of their ilk, sipped, supped, talked, composed, wrote, hummed, sang, laughed, cried, fell in love, broke up – and even simply lounged – in its chairs.
Guarantees discretion
![The Coco Chanel Suite in the revamped Ritz.](/content/dam/images/g/t/1/n/s/y/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1480559659917.jpg)
But to be outed as a Ritz Paris regular, clearly a few decades have to pass. Boyens is tight lipped when asked who stays there these days. "We guarantee discretion," is all he'll say, adding politely that many guests are now "third generation" of the same family. "I can also tell you our guests at the Ritz Paris are very well behaved," he smiles with a touch of touché, before steering the conversation to safer ground: the fact that this glorious hotel is now the only five-star hotel in Paris still owned by a family. Mohamed Al Fayed bought the hotel in 1979 following the death of Charles Ritz, the son of the first owner, César Ritz. Thus, only two families, the Swiss Ritzs and the Egyptian Al Fayeds, have ever owned it.
Of course, one of the saddest chapters in the hotel's history was the night of August 31 1997, when Princess Diana and Al Fayed's son Dodi were both killed in a car crash in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel shortly after departing the hotel in the back of a black Mercedes. Grainy pictures from CCTV footage of the couple in the hotel's lift, and later leaving the hotel, were flashed around the world.
Now 87, Mohamed Al Fayed still frequents the hotel. "He likes to check up on his team – he's the boss," says Boyens.
Also interesting is that in an age of chains, even luxury chains (a concept once considered an oxymoron), the Ritz Paris has no stablemates. César opened the Ritz London in 1906 – and there's a Ritz Madrid. But neither hotel has been associated with the Ritz Paris for decades now. "We are unique," says Boyens, emphasising while the hotel has excellent relations with the Ritz-Carlton, nor is it anything to do with that chain.
![Princess Diana and Ritz owner Mohamed Al Fayed's son Dodi on the night of August 31, 1997, when they were killed in a ...](/content/dam/images/g/t/g/m/1/w/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482379837552.jpg)
"We love to play with our independence – to use it to do things a little bit differently and more personalised."
Doing things differently generally means spoiling the well-heeled clientele. Boyens estimates "80 per cent of guests" elect to be met by a hotel representative at the door to their aeroplane. They are then escorted through the express immigration lane, helped with their luggage and driven in one of the hotel's limousines to Place Vendôme.
The new refurbished Ritz Paris has also done away with set check in and out times. "There is nothing worse when you have a 10pm flight back to Australia than being reminded that you need to be out of your room by 12 noon." Boyens winces at the mere thought. "We'll block your room until you leave for the airport. That way you can relax. We adapt to the guests, not the other way around. I never ever want to hear the reception desk say to a guest "please have an espresso at the bar and your room will be ready by 3pm".
Punishing standards
![Elegance and style: Grand Jardin at the Ritz.](/content/dam/images/g/r/a/h/t/l/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1473206670151.jpg)
The hotel – which will sell you a lead in junior room for about €1000 a night – can also cater to your every need, including custom-made linens (for allergies and the like), special scents, particular types of alcohol or champagne – and of course there are its new branded toiletries, which took two years to develop. "The Ritz Paris is not a bargain, no one is saying that," says Boyens between bites of our side dish of broccoli. "But it's an experience you won't forget in a hurry."
As for Boyens, maintaining the quality remains a pleasure even though the standards are punishing by anyone's measure. Each morning, he's on the metro early, travelling the seven stops from his home in the 17th arrondissement to the hotel, to commence the working day at 15 Place Vendôme. Things start at 8-8.30am with a debrief on the past 24 hours, followed by a run through of the day ahead.
"I love the diversity of the hotel business," he says. "There's so much variety. The Ritz Paris employs 600 staff of 50 nationalities and 12 religions – and we all focus on the one objective of creating a 'wow' experience for guests. Okay, there are a few arguments about the soccer results now and then, true – but otherwise, it's very harmonious."
Daily dilemmas to project manage include ongoing care of the hotel's many priceless antiques, artworks, silverware and other precious objects dating back to 1785. The staff uniforms must be ironed impeccably by the laundry department – and then there's the kitchen ... "the chefs have daily challenges – making sure the hand-made chocolate sticks don't stick together in the pain au chocolat; working out how to best cook the fresh seasonal porcini mushrooms that have just been delivered."
Boyens clearly has a grand passion for his adopted homeland of Paris, as well as its locals, tourists and landmarks – and his French has virtually no trace of an accent. Yet he was born in Germany and grew up in Hamburg, where he began his career in 1997 at the old Hotel Atlantic Kempinski, during the final days of the filming there of the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies.
"It was a great way to start working life in that atmosphere," he says. "Four weeks after I started as an apprentice – the lowest of the low – they started filming the banquet scene for the movie. The atmosphere was electric throughout the whole hotel. There were lounge parties in every function room – and you had Pierce Bronson climbing out the hotel's window for one scene."
Impressive CV
He rocketed up the hospitality ladder, working prior to the Paris Ritz in management positions with five-star pin-up Los Angeles properties like Hotel Casa del Mar and the Peninsula Beverly Hills.
![Despite his impressive CV, when it comes to his own holidays it's the little character-filled places that tend to pull ...](/content/dam/images/g/t/g/l/s/m/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482379624646.jpg)
Despite his impressive CV, when it comes to his own holidays it's the little character-filled places that tend to pull at his heart strings. "I think my love of hotels began with travelling with my mum and dad and brothers. We didn't stay in luxury hotels, but they were always respectable," he reminisces.
The youngest of three boys, while his brothers were fighting over which side of the bed they would sleep on, Boyens was downstairs testing the concierge. "I loved to press the bell on the desk to see how long it took before someone came out – and who would come out. Would it be the same person each time?"
Today, when he wants to get away from it all, he and wife Rachel head to Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel, a Relais & Chateaux property 12 kilometres from Cannes. He also adores the more family-oriented Forte Village Resort in Sardinia, Italy. "I love smaller hotels with a real sense of place. Tuscany, Rome and Florence have a lot to offer. In Rome, for example, there's The Hassler – or The Cavalieri with its beautiful pool if you're travelling with kids.
"Lesser known destinations like Verona are superb with the vineyards of Valpolicella and its famed Amarone right next door. In the fall [autumn], South Tyrol with the mountains; the island of Elba [in the Tuscan Archipelago], and Sicily's hilltop town of Taormina are lovely."
As for France, he recommends heading to the Champagne region only an hour north of Paris; the Loire Valley with its historic chateaus and Unesco sites – or a coastal town like St Malo "with amazing seafood".
It's tempting to ask if he still hits the concierge bells in various establishments to test for speed. But our post-lunch flat whites are now finished. Boyens is only in Sydney for a few days: he has a diary full of appointments and meet and greets – and he has to dash. He's staying in a rented luxury home in Watson's Bay on Sydney's harbour with colleagues from France. Tonight, they are cooking up a storm for the hotel's loyal Australian clients. It's another one of those unique independent little five-star touches he discussed earlier.
Boyens is doing seared scallops with snow peas in a soy-ginger sauce on the barbecue, while his colleague is preparing truffle risotto for entree. When I muse it's good of him to fly all this way and cook, he jokes that he adores his Australian clientele: "Besides, you Australians stay an average of four nights, compared with 2.5 to 3 nights for our other guests. You're funny, you're friendly – and you're good for our economy." Who'd have guessed?
Menu
![The Suite Windsor at the Ritz Paris. The hotel was closed for four years while it underwent a $590 million renovation.](/content/dam/images/g/r/a/h/s/a/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1482379936020.jpg)
Bistro Moncur, 116 Queen St, Woollahara.
1 pan-fried saikou salmon, baby king brown & shimeji mushrooms, baby zucchini, salsa verde & fresh herbs, $44
1 roast duck breast, sweet corn puree, finger fennel, braised witlof, and burnt orange, $44
1 side broccoli & almonds, $13
1 side fries, $10
I large bottle still Santa Vittoria water, $10
2 flat white, $5 each
Total: $131
![Bar Hemingway is back – with its roll call of talented ghosts including the likes of Cole Porter, F. Scott Fitzgerald, ...](/content/dam/images/g/r/a/h/t/s/image.imgtype.afrArticleInline.620x0.png/1473206675275.jpg)