You can check out... but you can never leave

Sitting beside the River Seine on the Left Bank in Paris is a luxury hotel with a remarkable history, even by the standards of the City of Light. Now, as the Lutetia inspires a new crime thriller, its author reveals the hotel's astonishing wartime story

- By Matthew Blake

THE Left Bank of the River Seine in Paris conjures up great art, passionate love affairs and mouthwatering food.

But taking pride of place in the 6th arrondissement is a hotel with a secret wartime past that is as shocking as it is fascinating.

The Lutetia opened in the early 1900s and was soon noted for its magnificent architecture and its celebrity guests. It was the favourite of many famous names, from Pablo Picasso to jazz singer Josephine Baker and novelist André Gide. It was Irish writer James Joyce’s final address before he died, while Charles de Gaulle spent his wedding night there. It was also a hotbed of anti-Nazi resistance in the 1930s, with Heinrich Mann and Willy Brandt becoming known as “the Lutetia Crowd” by the Nazi high command for plotting the downfall of the Third Reich in its luxury salons and bars.

In its comings and goings, there is something slightly reminiscent of Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel film and it forms the backdrop to my new novel A Murder in Paris.

Following the German invasion, the Lutetia filled with exiles fleeing the Nazis, especially displaced musicians, artists and writers, thanks to its bohemian reputation.

But after the French government evacuated Paris in June 1940, the Germans entered the city. Some residents of the Lutetia escaped, others were taken into custody and the Lutetia itself was occupied by the Abwehr, the German counterintelligence agency, with its luxurious rooms used to house high-ranking Nazi officers.

But the rebellious history of the Lutetia proved oddly prophetic. One of the officers was Admiral Canaris, who was part of an attempted coup against Hitler — a plot which later inspired the Hollywood blockbuster Valkyrie starring Tom Cruise.