“Anyone coming into the basement for the first time would have thought himself in a den of maniacs. It was only later, when I understood the working of a hotel, that I saw order in all this chaos.”
After subsisting for days on food scraps smuggled out by Boris in scrunched up newspaper, Eric finally got a job at the “Hotel X” where his Russian friend had already found a position. Long days washing up in the hot, cramped cellar would prove physically challenging but also illustrate how the pieces fit together in a well-run catering operation. For despite the apparent chaos, Hotel X was in fact a well-managed outfit and a far cry from the Russian restaurant that Eric and Boris would end up working in a month later.
Taken on not only as a plongeur – dishwasher – but also to improve the level of English spoken by the kitchen staff, Eric got through his first shift satisfactorily and began his period of employment at the luxury hotel sometime in the late summer, early Autumn of 1929. Referred to simply as the “Hotel X” in Down and Out in Paris and London, the establishment has subsequently been identified by (most of) Orwell’s biographers as the Lotti, a five-star hotel set under the grand archways just off the Place Vendome. Previously two hotels – the Liverpool and the Dominici – that fused to form one, the Lotti opened its doors in 1910 and was an immediate hit with the aristocratic set. The Lotti brought a certain English aesthetic and charm to the French capital; its raison d’être being to provide somewhere the fabulously wealthy Duke of Westminster – who funded the whole operation – could sojourn whilst in Paris.
“Here, you, shave that moustache off at once! Nom de Dieu, who ever heard of a plongeur with a moustache?”
Eric had to fall in line with the rules of etiquette governing life in the hotel business. As Boris explained to him, a moustache was a symbol of the superiority of the chefs and was not an acceptable look among the waiting staff, let alone the lowly dishwashers. Being at the bottom of the pecking order also brought with it a daily dose of verbal abuse, dished out whenever Eric ventured into the kitchen proper. The class system that reigned at the Lotti – and no doubt at other hotels in Paris – seemed not only dependant on your position but also on your nationality. The newly recruited dishwasher soon found himself in an environment where the head waiter enjoyed “…calling an Englishman names.” He put up with it and even shaved off his moustache, relieved to have found a job at last.
The Lotti has only recently re-opened after a lengthy refurbishment. The interior has been completely remodelled, and nothing remains of the original kitchens or service areas that Eric and Boris would have worked in.
The real people & places from Down and Out in Paris and London are revealed in the forthcoming book, Orwell in Paris – Down & Out with the Russian Captain.
To be published first in French: Orwell à Paris – Dans la dèche avec le capitaine russe. By EXILS éditions, Paris on the 24/04/2024
References:
George Orwell – Gordon Bowker
Documents on the Lotti in the Paris archives
Illustration:
The Hotel Lotti, June 1929 – Courtesy of Gallica