lampoon vaction Paris

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Okay, "ham", based on a little detective work, this is my best guess as to which hotel may have actually been used for filming in Paris. Though I could absolutely be wrong, I believe it is this one:



http://www.millenniumhotels.com/millenniumparis/



And here's why I think this is the case: If you watch closely the scene in the movie during the Griswald's (or Griswold, as it's spelled in some of the other "Vacation" movies) Paris hotel check-in (scene 12: "Typical Americans"), look closely at the glass just above the doorway which is in the background as the family stands at the front desk (particularly from time code 39:07, to 39:10). Part of the hotel name is clearly visible (though backwards), and reads as follows: "-OTEL ---MODORE". Filling in the missing letters, I came up with "Hotel Commodore", and then did some additional research. Though I wasn't able to find any information on the internet that specifically confirmed that this definitely was the hotel used in the movie, doing a search of current Parisian hotels eventually led me to this link:


http://www.travelhero.com/prophome.cfm/id/110304/hotels/reservations/i ndex.html


For some reason, "TravelHero" still lists the name of the hotel as the "Millennium Commodore", which eventually leads one to realize that the name of the property must have changed (probably relatively recently), since the street address of the "Commodore" matches exactly to that which is listed on the property's current link at the top of this page (Millennium Hotel Paris Opera).

The "TravelHero" page also indicates that the hotel was renovated in 1998, which would explain why current photos of the property, don't look exactly like the hotel did as it appeared in the movie back in 1985. But if you look closely, it's not hard to see that the basic features of the hotel are still pretty much the same (both room and lobby photos).

So, though it's possible I could be wrong, based on the available evidence, it all seems to match.

Hope this helps!



5/2014 UPDATE:
The above "TravelHero" link is outdated and no longer valid, since (apparently) the website no longer lists the hotel name in question, as the "Millennium Commodore"........however, the top link to the Millennium Hotel Paris Opera is still valid, and now (according to another post on this board that provides images from locations during the original filming of the movie, and compares them to present day images of the same locations) seems to confirm this property as the actual hotel that was used during the film's original location shooting in Paris

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[smile]

The one thing I inadvertently did not mention in my above explanations, is the fact that any mention of specific scenes (i.e., "scene 12: "Typical Americans"") or time codes (i.e., "particularly from time code 39:07, to 39:10"), refers to reference points found on the original DVD release of this movie.....


;-)