the great history of the Metropole Hanoi hotel

In the muggy night of Hanoi, Vietnam, the facade of the Metropole Hotel shines brightly. A timeless and out-of-the-world place, it is frequented by Vietnamese customers, tourists and expatriates. Catherine Deneuve, Robert De Niro, Jacques Chirac and Bill Clinton, the Metropole is also a luxury setting visited by major celebrities. Charlie Chaplin has even had a cocktail named after him since he spent his wedding night there in 1936.

This Vietnamese hotel has always embraced history, big and small. Hanoi, the capital of the communist regime, was not spared from the American bombings in 1972. Guests at the Metropole regularly rushed out of their rooms to take refuge in a bunker, rediscovered in 2011 during work on the hotel. American bombs ultimately spared the hotel, inaugurated in 1901 and built by two French investors. Hanoi was then in full development and splendid buildings with neoclassical architecture were emerging. Like the Metropole, these buildings must meet the requirements of the French colonial administration which then ruled Indochina. Since then, the hotel has kept and even cultivated this colonial atmosphere, which makes it a legendary hotel.