Hotel Continental

In front of you is the Hotel Continental, opened in 1880 and the oldest hotel in Saigon. If these walls could talk, they would tell a story of journalists, novelists and spies.

1Radio Catinat

It was built between 1878 and 1880 by the businessman Pierre Cazeau on what was then the rue Catinat, the colony's smartest street. In 1930 it passed to the Corsican Mathieu Franchini, and his family ran it until 1975. During the war against France its terrace earned a nickname, “Radio Catinat”, because correspondents, politicians and traders swapped news, rumours and disinformation there. In the war that followed, Time and Newsweek had their offices on the second floor, and journalists nicknamed the bar the “Continental Shelf”.

2The quiet American and the perfect spy

Graham Greene stayed here in the early 1950s and set scenes of The Quiet American (1955), a novel about spies and good intentions, in the hotel. Reality went further: Phạm Xuân Ẩn, a Time correspondent and a regular in these cafés, was secretly an agent of North Vietnamese intelligence. Nobody knew until after the war.

In 1960s Saigon, the best source of news could also be the enemy's best source.

3What to look for

• The rounded corner of the building, facing the Opera House.
• The iron balconies on the upper floors.
• The pavement opposite, where Café Givral stood, another meeting place for journalists.