The Peninsula, Royal Monceau Raffles and Le Bristol are Paris’s grand hotels

PARIS’S grand old hotels have seen the best of times and the worst of times.

Entrance to The Peninsula Paris.

PARIS’S three grand old hotels have seen the best of times and the worst of times. Here is all you need to know about their history and neighbourhoods.

THE PENINSULA

History: The limestone beaux-arts building opened as the Majestic Hotel in 1908; in the 1920s, its plush salons were gathering places for intellectuals and artists and, in 1928, George Gershwin worked on An American in Paris while staying here. After the occupation of the city in World War II, the hotel was converted to UNESCO headquarters and later appropriated by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which used it for international conferences until 2009 — it’s where the Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973 by the US and Vietnam in an attempt to end the Vietnam War. While the Majestic Hotel was completed in two years, The Peninsula Paris took twice that; it opened on August 1 last year after a restoration involving 3000 master craftsmen, from ornamental gilders to stonemasons specialising in historic monuments. The seven-storey, 200-room hotel is the Peninsula Group’s 10th property and its first in Europe.

Neighbourhood: The hotel, in the stylish 16th arrondissement, boasts two grand entrances, on Avenues Kléber and Portugais, the former guarded by an imposing pair of 1.7m-tall stone Chinese door lions. It’s a quiet precinct, within cooee of the Arc de Triomphe and Avenue des Champs-Elysees; head to the nearby Palais Galliera Musee de la Mode to see regularly changing exhibitions of haute couture.

Rooms: The  guestrooms follow the Peninsula global template, combining east-meets-west décor with recurring leaf patterns, original artwork, Tai Ping carpets and the latest technology. Easy-to-access bedside digital tablets operate all functions in the rooms and the marbled ensuites are veritable temples to the art of bathing, even with a television inset by the tub. Five top-floor suites tucked up on the mansard roofs feature flowered courtyards and sumptuous detailing such as handwoven silks and jacquards.

Restaurants & bars: Head to the sixth-floor L’Oiseau Blanc, where a 75 per cent scale replica of a biplane is suspended over the adjacent courtyard, its nose tilted towards the Eiffel Tower. Images of tiny planes and bluish clouds appear on tableware designed by Catherine Bergen; on chef Sidney Redel’s “bistronomy” menu, try L’Envol, a fruit-filled chocolate dessert shaped like a toy aircraft engine with a shortbread propeller on top.

Moodily lit LiLi, on the ground floor, is an operatic space conceived by Henry Leung of Hong Kong-based Chhada Siembieda & Associates; there are cascading chandeliers, midnight-blue walls, birdcage-like seats and encompassing red curtains. The menu is Cantonese, with gourmet flourishes and brilliant shrimp and chive dumplings from the kitchen’s dim sum specialists. The yew-hedged Terrasse Kléber, covered by a steel-and-glass canopy, is the place for drinks or a menu of  light meals. The Paris Peace Accords were signed in a ballroom that is now Le Bar Kléber, complete with Christofle crystal tumblers and original oak panelling from the Majestic Hotel.

Service: Eight French “ambassadors” were sent pre-opening to a boot camp in Hong Kong for a month to be immersed in all things Peninsula; the team included senior representatives from the Paris property’s key departments. All staff are impeccably groomed and courteous but perhaps a little too reserved; the fun factor is somehow missing amid such voluminous grandeur and the formal sit-down breakfast in The Lobby dining room, as palatial as a mini-Versailles, is slow and stuffy compared with, say, the inventive buffet at key competitor Le Royal Monceau Raffles.

Details: The Peninsula Paris, 19 Avenue Kléber, 75116, Paris; + 33 1 58 12 28 88; paris.peninsula.com.

LE ROYAL MONCEAU RAFFLES

History: The hotel gets its name from the Parc Monceau, a short walk away at the end of Avenue Hoche (which until 1879 was named Boulevard Monceau). The original Royal Monceau opened in 1928 by hoteliers André Jugnot and Pierre Bermond who had previously founded hotels in Biarritz, Cannes, Evian and in Paris. Ho Chi Minh lived here for seven weeks in 1947 and in 1948 Golda Meir and David Ben Gurion signed the declaration that lead to the formation of the state of Israel in the hotel’s lounge. In 2007 the building was bought by Qatari Diar, which also owns The Peninsula Paris. The following year the hotel’s contents were auctioned and a demolition party marked the beginning of Philippe Strack’s two-year transformation of the hotel.

Neighbourhood: Le Royal Monceau is a short walk from the Arc de Triomphe and Champs Elysees and a slightly longer – but very easy – walk to the luxury shopping area of the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.

Rooms: There are 85 rooms and 64 suites including three presidential suites which have a private entrance. The presidential suites are more like penthouses, up to 350sq m with three bedrooms and bathrooms, separate dining and sitting rooms. The largest suite is €25,000 per night. At the other end of the scale are the studio rooms, the smallest of which is 36sq m with a small sitting area, walk-in closet and surprisingly spacious bathroom.

Restaurants and bars: Le Bar Long is, as the name suggests, a long bar that takes up most of the lobby and gets very busy in the early evening. The buffet breakfast is served in La Cuisine and is one of the best hotel breakfasts in Paris thanks to its pastries from Pierre Hermé. The hotel also has an Italian restaurant, Il Carpaccio, and an outdoor dining area, La Terrasse, which is like a quiet oasis from the city on a hot day.

Service: The first of the new Asia-based entrants into the Paris luxury hotel market, Le Royal Monceau has managed to find the right combination of Asian-style service with a distinctive French sensibility.

Details: Le Royal Monceau Raffles Paris, 37 Avenue Hoche 75008; [phone];

leroyalmonceau.com, lhw.com

LE BRISTOL

History: Hyppolyte Jammet opened the hotel in 1925 having worked at the Hotel Meurice in Paris and the Adlon in Berlin. Jammet chose the name in tribute to Frederick Augustus Hervey, the fourth Earl of Bristol, an avid traveller known for his taste for luxury and the demands he made of hotels. In 1978 the hotel was bought by the Oetker family and is now part of the Oetker Collection. Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris was partially set in the hotel and the film plays for free on the hotel’s in-house movie channel.

Neighbourhood: While the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré is not the grandest of Parisian streets it certainly has the best selection of luxury boutiques. The area is also known for its design stores and art galleries.

Rooms: Le Bristol has 188 rooms, 92 of which are suites. Even the smallest rooms are spacious and light-filled and many have large marble bathrooms. The rooms and suites have been extensively refurbished with a more traditional decor. All artworks are original as the hotel is owned by a family of art collectors.

Restaurants and bars: The three restaurants and main bar are under the direction of the triple-Michelin-starred chef Eric Frechon. Its gastronomic restaurant, Epicure, looks on to the hotel’s garden courtyard and is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Jackets are required at breakfast and bookings are recommended.

Service: There is possibly nothing like Le Bristol when it comes to service; it is attentive and swift and nothing ever seems to be a problem. The hotel also has one of the speediest checkouts we’ve ever experienced – within five minutes of leaving our room we were in a taxi on the way to the Eurostar.

Details: Le Bristol Paris, 112 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 75008; [phone];

lebristolparis.com; lhw.com