En 1904

The hotel, which displays the sign 'The Banner of France' was established in 1685 by Catherine Barre.
In 1700, the Hôtel la Bannière was the site of a fight in which the Chevalier d'Espinoy was killed.
The novelist Jules Husson, known as "Champfleury", located the hero of his novel at the Hôtel la Bannière.
Jean Berton sold la Bannière on 22 March 1745, for 6,284 livres, to Philbert Regnault, a master chef, who left it to his widow, Marie-Louise Boitelle, and his son, Charles-Philbert Regnault, a town hall counsellor and clothing and haberdashery merchant.
Around 1830 the Saint-Quentin mail-coach left daily from Boudinot's Hotel de la Bannière at four in the afternoon, arriving in Saint-Quentin at ten in the evening.
From 1926 to 1961 the Thiebaut family ran the hotel and, with the installation of the town's first film-projector, the banquet room became a most important place in the life of Laon.
In 1967, Paul and Lieselotte Lefevre, trained at the hospitality school at Lausanne, Switzerland, took over the management of the hotel, modernising it and improving the quality of its service. Soon its restaurant once again became well known throughout the region.
Since the death of Paul Lefevre in 1990 his wife has continued their work and has committed herself to continuing the business.
Through the years the Hôtel de la Bannière de France has welcomed many celebrities who have contributed to the reputation of the three hundred year-old institution. These celebrities include Marcel Pagnol, Charles Trenet, Queen Marie-Josée of Italy, King Léopold of Belgium, Line Renaud, Claude Pieplu, Raymond Devos, Michel Bouquet and Lambert Wilson.
Today, the hotel is continuing its history into the third millennium.
 


In 2001