It's where Proust met Joyce and Kissinger ended the Vietnam War. John Lichfield reports on a ￡350m facelift to restore the city landmark
就是在这里普鲁斯特(法国意识流作家)会见了乔伊斯(爱尔兰作家诗人)。这里也曾是享利‧基辛格(第56任美国国务卿)结束越南战争的地方。约翰‧利奇菲尔德就这起花了3.5亿英镑翻新以恢复这个城市地标的事件作出了报告。

JOHN LICHFIELD PARIS Friday 25 July 2014
作者: 约翰·利奇菲尔德2014年7月25日于巴黎

On 18 May 1922, Marcel Proust and James Joyce, the two greatest novelists of the 20th century, met for the first and only time.
1922年5月18日，20世纪两位最伟大的小说家马塞尔‧普鲁斯特和占姆斯‧乔伊斯，第一次会见也是唯一的一次。

They did not get on well. Joyce described their conversation as "all questions whose answers were 'No'." He outraged the asthmatic French writer by lighting a cigarette as they shared a car home.
两位作家的会面并不愉快。乔伊斯描述他们的谈话为『所有问题的回答他都说“不”』。因为他点燃了一根香烟激怒了这位有哮喘的法国作家，那时他们共乘一辆车子回家。

The soirée for modernist painters, musicians, dancers and writers had been arranged by a rich, eccentric British couple, Sydney and Violet Schiff. The other guests included Pablo Picasso and Igor Stravinsky. The dinner took place at the Hotel Majestic, 19 Avenue Kléber, in Paris.
一对富有的、古怪的英国夫妇悉尼和紫罗兰希夫给一些现代派画家、音乐家、舞蹈家和作家等举办晚会。其余的嘉宾包括了毕加索(画家)和伊戈尔•斯特拉文斯基(音乐家)。晚宴在巴黎克莱贝尔大道19号的宏伟酒店内举行。

Now fast-forward to May 1928. The American composer George Gershwin wrote the “blues” section of his orchestral poem An American in Paris while staying at the Hotel Majestic, 19 Avenue Kléber. He was influenced, he said, by the sound of cars honking as it they circumnavigated the Arc de Triomphe 200 metres away.
现在让时间快进到1928年5月，美国作曲家佐治‧盖希文写好了他的交响乐诗篇《一位美国人在巴黎》里的其中《蓝调》的章节，当时他住在克莱贝尔大道19号的宏伟酒店。他表示: 由于汽车围绕着凯旋门200米处行走，他受到鸣喇叭的声音所影响。

Fast-forward again to 27 January 1973. The peace agreement to end the Vietnam war was concluded by, inter alia, Henry Kissinger after four years of talks and mutual insults. The talks, insults and final signing took place in the French government's international conference centre, formerly the Hotel Majestic, 19 Avenue Kléber.
时间再快进至1973年1月27日，结束越战的和平协议在这里签署。在历时四年的谈判和相互侮辱之后，尤其是亨利‧基辛格，那些会谈、侮辱以及最终签订都在法国政府的国际会议中心举行，其前身即克莱贝尔大道19号的宏伟酒店。

An exterior shot of the Majestic Hotel
宏伟酒店外部拍摄图

The Majestic, one of several long-lost, mythical hotels in Paris, will be reborn next Friday, 1 August.
宏伟酒店， 几个久违了的在巴黎如神话般的酒店之一，即将于8月1日周五重生。

After more than 70 years in other guises, the Hotel Majestic will rise again as the Peninsula, one of a new generation of super-luxury hotels in the French capital.
在宏伟酒店在70多年之后以另一个面貌--半岛酒店的身份再次升起，这是一幢位于法国首都的新一代超级豪华酒店。

A partnership between the Qatari government and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels Group has invested around EUR900m (￡711m) – half to buy the building from the French government and about the same again to restore the hotel to its original 1908 splendour. With 200 rooms and suites, including five with their own roof-top gardens, this makes the Peninsula Paris, room for room, the most costly hotel ever created.
一个由卡塔尔(国名，于阿拉伯半岛东部波斯湾沿岸)政府和香港上海大酒店集团组成的合作伙伴投资了约9亿欧罗(约相当于7.11亿英磅)，其中半数用于从法国政府手上买下这幢建筑物，另一半用于翻新酒店使其恢复到原来于1908年的辉煌。酒店客房和套房共有200间，其中包括五座自己的屋顶花园，这使得巴黎半岛酒店，这房中之房，成为有史以来最昂贵的酒店。

The new hotel – close to both the Arc de Triomphe and Eiffel Tower – has a breath-taking roof-top terrace and restaurant and an underground spa and swimming pool.
这全新的酒店， 其附近是凯旋门和艾菲尔铁塔，拥有令人叹为观止的屋顶露台和餐厅，还有一个地下温泉和游泳池。

For decades, tourists and Parisians walked past 19 Avenue Kléber without knowing its extraordinary story. This was a place where the history of the French capital in the 20th century was made, both the light shades and the dark.
几十年来，游客和巴黎人走过克莱贝尔大道19号却不知道它过去的不平凡往事。这是20世纪法国首都创造历史的地方，包括了光影与黑暗。

It was at the Majestic that the British government delegation (including the diplomat-politician-writer Harold Nicolson), lived in 1919 while negotiating the Versailles peace treaty which formally ended the First World War. It was in the ex-Majestic that the German army , the Wehrmacht, set up its headquarters after France's conquest in June 1940.
在1919年，就正式结束第一次世界大战的凡尔赛和平条约展开谈判时，英国政府代表团（包括外交官，政治家，作家哈罗德‧尼科尔森）等就是住在这幢宏伟酒店内。 1940年6月法国被占领后，德军纳税国防军曾设此酒店前身为总部。

After the war, the building was briefly the headquarters of Unesco before sinking into anonymity as a French government conference centre and then as offices.
战争结束后该建筑落入匿名人仕手中，在成为法国政府会议中心办事处之前，曾一度是前联合国教科文组织总部。

The old Grand Hall
酒店旧大堂

“By the 1990s, the building was, frankly, dull, dark and unattractive. You could walk past without seeing it,” Nicolas Béliard, the director-general of the new hotel, told The Independent. “We have spent a lot of time and money to uncover, study and recreate the original spirit and beauty of the building. It took two years to build the Majestic in 1906-08. We have taken four and a half years to recreate it as the Peninsula.”
『到了20世纪90年代，坦白说，这建筑已变得萧条、黯然失色而且毫无吸引力。你可以走过它的旁边而毫不察觉它。 』新酒店的总干事Nicolas Béliard这样告诉独立报记者。 『我们已经花了很多时间和金钱去发掘、学习和重新建设这个建筑的原创精神和美感。这建筑从1906至1908年共耗时两年打造的大气磅礴，我们用了四年半时间来翻新重建成为现在的半岛酒店。 』

The Independent was given a sneak preview this week. The results are stunning. The old ballroom of the hotel, where the Vietnam peace talks took place from 1969-73, has become a sweeping, light-filled breakfast room, tearoom and lobby, with the original stone mouldings and ceiling paintings beautifully restored.
独立报本周被准许先睹为快，其结果让人震惊。酒店的旧宴会厅，就是从1969年至1973年展开越南和平谈判的那个，如今以原石造型和天花板装饰画精心修复了，成为一个广阔的，明亮的早餐室、茶室和大堂。

In January 1973, The New York Times wrote: “The agreement was signed at the gigantic round table, covered with a prairie of green baize, where the four parties to the Paris conference have been speechifying at each other, and often vilifying each other, almost weekly for four years.”
1973年1月，纽约时报写道：『该协议在巨大的圆桌上签署，圆桌上覆盖了一幅草原绿色的粗呢布，出席巴黎会议的四方代表之间高谈阔论，并常常丑化对方，这样的会议几乎每周都举办一次并持续了四年。

"The great ballroom of the former Hotel Majestic, where the table stands, is crammed with crystal and gilt chandeliers, lush tapestries and ornate gilt mouldings. But the scene was as glum as the drizzly, grey Paris sky outside. The men all wore dark suits."

『前宏伟酒店其中具代表性的大宴会厅，里面挂满了水晶和镀金枝形吊灯、豪华的挂毯和装饰华丽的镀金图案。但是，当时的场面忧郁如巴黎灰色天空外下着的毛毛雨。人们都穿着深色西装。

Nearby is the small oak panelled room where, it is said, the archetypical “man in a dark suit”, Dr Henry Kissinger, President Richard Nixon's national security adviser, initialled the final peace agreement. Each of the original, wooden panels has been sent away for meticulous restoration. The room has become the hotel's main bar.
据说，附近的小橡木镶板的房间里，典型的『深色西装的男人』，亨利‧基辛格博士，尼克松总统的国家安全顾问，草签了最后的和平协议。这里的每件原物，木制板已被送往做细致恢复。这个房间已经成为酒店的主要酒吧。

Henry Kissinger signs the Paris Peace Accords in 1973 (Getty Images)
亨利·基辛格于1973年签署巴黎和平协议(Getty图片)

There will be no plaque on the wall to remind guests and visitors of the room's place in 20th-century history. “But the chandelier is based on a typical Vietnamese style,” said Mr Béliard. “Just as a little wink and a nod to those who are interested in the story of the building.”
酒店墙壁上没有任何牌匾提醒客人和访客有关房间位罝在20世纪的历史。 『然而这里的吊灯采用了一个典型越南风格，就像朝着那些对这建筑物的故事感兴趣的人眨眼或点头一样。 』 Béliard先生说。

Also on the ground floor is the reborn hotel's restaurant, LiLi, which will serve Cantonese cuisine. This space was also the original hotel's restaurant. It is assumed that the Proust-Joyce (and Picasso and Stravinsky) encounter of May 1922 took place here.
另外在一楼楼层是脱胎换骨的酒店餐厅《丽丽》，这家餐厅将供应粤菜。这个位置也是原来酒店的餐厅。据推测，1922年5月的普鲁斯特、乔伊斯（还有毕加索和斯特拉文斯基）的会见就是在这里。

Various accounts of the evening have been handed down, All agree that Marcel Proust, a recluse and only six months from the end of his life, arrived disgracefully late in white gloves and a fur coat. James Joyce arrived even later, apparently drunk, and fell asleep at the table.
当晚的各种不同报道一直流传下来。大家都同意，隐士马塞尔‧普鲁斯特，那时离他生命的尽头还剩半年。他戴着白色手套和穿上一件裘皮大衣尴尬地迟到了。而詹姆斯‧乔伊斯甚至更晚才到，而且显然是喝醉了，并在桌子上睡着了。

Each said they had not read the other's work (which in Joyce's case was probably untrue). They discussed their ailments. "My eyes are terrible,” said Joyce. “My poor stomach,” said Proust. “It's killing me."
每个人都说他们没有看过对方的作品（这在乔伊斯的情况看，很可能是不真实的）。他们讨论到各自的疾病。我的视力差得可怕。乔伊斯说。我胃不好，这简直是想要我的命。普鲁斯特说。

"Are you acquainted with the Comtesse of so-and-so," asked the legendarily snobbish Proust. Joyce said: "No."

你认识像某某的伯爵夫人？ 传奇自负的普鲁斯特问道。乔伊斯说：没有。

The exterior of the hotel today
酒店现时之外观

The dinner has gone down, all the same, as one of the cultural high watermarks of Paris of the 1920s when the city was the undisputed avant-garde capital of the world.
当时这个城市是世界上无可争议的前卫之都，这个晚宴也完全一样, 成为1920年代巴黎文化崇高的水印之一。

The Hotel Majestic closed in 1937 after only 29 years. The family which built it also owned two smaller luxury hotels nearby. For reasons unknown – possibly the great depression of the 1930s – they decided to sell their flagship hotel to the French government as a conference centre.
在只经营了29年后的1937年，宏伟酒店关闭了。建造这幢的家族在附近还拥有两幢较小的豪华酒店。其关闭之原因不明，可能是受到1937年的大萧条影响。他们决定出售自己的旗舰酒店给法国政府作为会议中心。

The original hotel had 400 rooms. The Peninsula Paris will have 200 rooms and suites, at prices ranging from EUR1,095 to EUR25,000 a night. For the month of August only, there is an "introductory" offer, a snip at EUR695 a night.
原来的酒店有400间客房。而巴黎半岛酒店将有客房和套房共200间，价位从1095欧罗到25000欧罗一晚。酒店推出了一个“介绍期”优惠价，仅限于八月份有效，特会期只需695欧罗一晚，价廉物美。

Four of the top-class hotels in Paris, including the Ritz and the Crillon, are currently closed for extensive renovations. Two other, brand-new five-star hotels have opened in recent years. When all these hotels are open, will there not be a surfeit of top-of-the-range hotel rooms?
巴黎的四家顶级酒店， 包括丽兹酒店和克里翁酒店，目前已关闭正在大规模修缮。另外的两家全新五星级酒店已在近几年开业。当所有这些酒店都开放营业，顶级酒店的房间数量会不会过剩呢？

"We have no worries about that," said Mr Béliard. “Everything suggests that there is plenty of demand. We are a small group, already well-known in Asia and the United States. This is our first hotel in Europe but an agreement has recently been signed to build a Peninsula in Grosvenor Square in London. We expect many Asian and American visitors but we are not targeting them specifically. We are confident that we will also appeal to people from Europe and the Middle East."
『我们并没有担心这个问题』Béliard先生说。 『一切都表明市场有大量的需求。我们是一个小团体，早已闻名于亚洲和美国。这是我们在欧洲的首家酒店，另外我们最近签署了一项协议，计划在伦敦格罗夫纳广场建一间半岛酒店。我们预计有许多亚洲和美洲的游客，但我们的具体目标不是这些。我们有信心将吸引来自欧洲和中东的人。

The size of the Paris market for super-luxury hotels may, according to rumour, be tested even further. Another “lost, legendary” hotel of Paris, the Elysée Palace on the Champs Elysées, was closed in 1920, three years after the dancer Mata Hari was arrested there as an alleged German agent. The building is now the French headquarters of HSBC but is said to be coveted as a possible hotel by Middle Eastern investors.
根据传闻，巴黎超豪华酒店的市场规模大小可能会进一步被测试。另一家“失落的，传说中的”酒店是在香榭丽舍大街的巴黎爱丽舍宫。舞蹈家玛塔‧哈里以一个所谓德国间谍的罪名在那里被逮捕，在事件发生三年之后，酒店于1920年被关闭。该建筑目前是香港上海汇丰设于法国的总部， 但据说中东投资者觊觎将其变成一家酒店。