The best Paris hotels from the Ritz and Park Hyatt to Lutetia and Madame Reve
When it comes to accommodation in the French capital, travellers are spoiled for choice. Take your pick from this very fine selection.
When it comes to accommodation in the French capital, travellers have more choice than a mouse in a fromagerie. Fancy staying in the former home of a relative of Napoleon Bonaparte, a grand palace fashioned in Louis XIV style with a swimming pool carved from the former stables? The Shangri-La is your pick.
How about a room with a view of Place Vendome from an 18th-century establishment inhabited by Coco Chanel for 34 years and patronised by the likes of Marcel Proust, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway? Here’s looking at you, Ritz Paris.
Or a storied pile once frequented by kings and queens, and where modern-day culinary and design royalty Alain Ducasse and Philippe Starck call the shots in the kitchen and the restaurant? Le Meurice will do the trick.
With opulence, elegance and attentive butlers in abundant supply, it’s not so much about being spoiled for choice, but simply being spoiled. Take your pick from this very fine bunch.
Hotel Madame Reve
Ensconced within the sprawling heritage Louvre Post Office complex, this hotel makes an instant impression with its toffee-coloured velvet drapes, striking fresco and swirling mosaic flooring in the entryway. The ground-floor cafe-bar has soaring 8m ceilings and dark timber panelling, harking back to grand European venues of old. On the third floor, the 82 guestrooms and suites look out over the chimney stacks, or inwards over the courtyard and garden filled with desert-style plantings. Artworks reference the building’s former life, with 800 mail-oriented pieces donated by a single collector. The newly opened rooftop takes a more modern approach with cheery yellow furnishings and views in every direction, to the Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, Notre Dame and St Eustache church. Restaurant La Plume is where Japanese cuisine meets jaw-dropping interiors of marble, copper, leather and walnut. Even the gym has gorgeous oak parquetry floors.
In the neighbourhood Nearby Rue Montorgueil is filled with bistros, chocolatiers and niche shops, including Stohrer, considered the oldest patisserie in Paris (1730).
PENNY HUNTER
Le Cinq Codet
Tucked away in the posh 7th arrondissement, this Design Hotels member is named simply for its address. The 67-room property occupies a 1930s corner building with a semi-industrial facade and the profile of an ocean liner’s bow. This was once the France Telecom exchange and the exterior and many interior details have been faithfully retained. But the design look, conceived during a 2014 conversion, is resolutely modern. Expect a mix of jazzy colours and an abundance of original art. Duplex guestrooms with connecting stairs are popular but for a better layout, book the Classic or Superior grades or splurge on a top-floor suite with garden terrace and views of the Eiffel Tower, glittering at night like Glomesh. The fare at the 35-seat in-house Chinquette is excellent, from a small but perfect breakfast buffet to Sunday brunch served in an internal courtyard planted with maples and ferns, and dinner menus of international classics perked up with Asian flavours and the best of French produce.
In the neighbourhood Stroll to Les Invalides, home to Napoleon Bonaparte’s tomb and military history displays; museums such as Musee Rodin; and the cafes and bistros of Rue Cler, renowned for its array of food shops, including Mariage Freres, purveyors of arguably the world’s finest teas.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Hotel Lutetia
Ah, the Left Bank. So bohemian. Hotel Lutetia was opened in Saint-Germain-des-Pres in 1910 in a glorious art nouveau-meets-deco mansion by the owners of nearby Le Bon Marche department store so out-of-city customers would have a suitable pied a terre. The hotel is the only truly grand property on the Left Bank, plus recipient of a coveted “palace hotel” rating. It reopened in mid-2018 after a four-year revival with new and refreshed features plus the addition of Signature Suites. There’s the bi-level Suite Amour, complete with terrace and Eiffel Tower view. Suite L’Atelier comes with two balconies and art-filled decor; the Josephine Baker Suite celebrates the Folies Bergere dancer. And unveiled last year is La Suite Parisienne, which honours actor Isabelle Huppert. Try the hotel’s Akasha Holistic Wellbeing Spa, which closes at a leisurely 10pm; dine at street-level Brasserie Lutetia, with its Mediterranean-inspired menus; and pull up a stool at the 10m-long counter of the theatrical Bar Josephine, an homage to Madame Baker.
In the neighbourhood Hotel Lutetia is about 1km from Musee d’Orsay. Drop into La Grande Epicerie at Le Bon Marche for gourmet treats and packaged gifts.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
La Reserve Hotel and Spa
This massive Haussmann-era pile on Avenue Gabriel in the 8th arrondissement is within striking distance of the feted Triangle d’Or of Paris’s most famous boulevards – the Champs-Elysees and avenues Montaigne and George V. You couldn’t hope for a better-connected address. The 1854-built mansion’s latest chapter started in 2015 when hospitality magnate and vineyard owner Michel Reybier launched the eye-popping La Reserve, after top-to-toe remodelling. The atmosphere is far from rarefied, even if the lobby looks like a ballroom with gilt mirrors and looming chandeliers. Across 40 butler-attended chambers, suites outnumber guestrooms and all are over-sized confections in a quartet of colour themes. La Pagode de Cos, the all-day brasserie, has a living-room atmosphere of sofas and armchairs. Sunday champagne brunch and afternoon tea on weekends provide people-watching fodder and a cocktail in the vampish, scarlet-toned Le Bar is de rigueur.
In the neighbourhood Head to Jardin des Tuileries to view the Monet landscapes at Musee de L’Orangerie, continuing to Musee des Arts Decoratifs. The hotel has a program of insider opportunities for guests, including trawling markets with an antiques expert or a backstage visit at Opera Garnier.
SUSAN KUROSAWA
Le Royal Monceau, Raffles Paris
Paris’s designated “palace hotels” are one notch above five-star, and few are as striking as the 1928-built Le Royal Monceau in the 8th arrondissement, a short walk from the Champs-Elysees. In 2008, Philippe Starck went with plenty of glamour and loads of quirk for a redesign reflecting a chic, residential vibe across the 149 guestrooms and suites. Celebrating a storied guestbook filled with intellectuals and artists, there’s an impressive art collection, art concierge and art references everywhere: a Cocteau sketch embroidered on the linen pillowcases, surrealist images on coffee cups and tables set within a vine-cloaked arbour shaped like a teapot. The glamorous between-wars mood continues in the sultry cigar club, and the elegant Michelin-starred Italian restaurant. And there are loads of surprises. One rooftop suite includes a tiny, unfurnished room lined entirely with mirrors, which is perfect, in fact, for viewing those latest couture purchases.
In the neighbourhood Housing the Museum of Fine Arts, the Petit Palais also claims a gem of a courtyard garden overlooked by a smart cafe.
CHRISTINE McCABE
Le Roch Hotel & Spa
Popular with the fashion set, jewel-like Le Roch is tucked away on a quiet street off Rue Saint-Honore within easy walking distance of the Tuileries, Louvre and Galeries Lafayette. The only clue to its locale are nattily dressed porters standing outside the front door. Elegant interiors are by modish Parisian designer Sarah Lavoine and each of the 37 guestrooms and suites is different but oh so French, with monogrammed linens, luxury unguents, marble bathrooms and windows that open on to the street (a Paris essential, I’d say). Rather brilliantly, each room has its own Wi-Fi network, and service is top-notch. Across the day spa, leafy courtyard garden and cosy lounge with fireplace, there’s a mood of effortless ease. This is a hotel that makes you feel you’ve discovered the real Paris. And you have. About one-third of guests are locals.
In the neighbourhood One of the best views of the city can be had from the rooftop terrace of the nearby Galeries Lafayette.
CHRISTINE McCABE
Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome
A contemporary palace hotel formed by five Haussmann buildings stitched together as seamlessly as a haute-couture frock, Park Hyatt Paris-Vendome is a discreet, moneyed bolthole popular with A-listers (and it smells as good as it looks thanks to a delicious house fragrance). Occupying the site of a pioneering fashion house, very near Place Vendome, the interiors have been pulled together by legendary US hotel designer Ed Tuttle. Think silk-lined walls, great tubs of moth orchids, an airy colonnade of Parisian limestone and some serious art courtesy of Hyatt founders, the Chicago-based Pritzker family. The mood is residential and the service discreet (you never know who could be perched at the cosy bar). The 156 guestrooms and suites continue a prevailing mood of understated luxury with walk-in wardrobes and incredibly comfy beds dressed in soft sheets; French sculptor Roseline Granet fashioned the bronze door handles. The hotel’s main restaurant, Pur’-Jean-Francois Rouquette, has a Michelin star and the breakfast is divine.
In the neighbourhood Zip about the city aboard a classic Citroen 2CV with a beret-clad driver from local operator 4 Roues Sous 1 Parapluie.
CHRISTINE McCABE
MORE TO THE STORY
Fresh happenings in the French capital
Bourse de Commerce
The circular stock exchange building has been transformed by Japanese architect Tadao Ando into a modern art gallery to display works from tycoon Francois Pinault’s extensive collection. A stunning glass dome and 19th-century colonial frescoes combine with abundant concrete to create a space where the art can shine. On show until June 6 is a selection of Charles Ray sculptures.
Samaritaine
This historic department store just off Pont Neuf is back in all its art nouveau glory, with curly-whirly iron lace balustrades and an exquisite gold and grey fresco adorning the walls beneath its enormous glass skylight. All the big names of beauty and fashion are here, arranged around the airy atrium. Get that so-Frenchy, so-chic look with the help of a personal stylist or have a beauty or spa treatment.
Eiffel Tower
It may not be obvious but La Tour is 6m higher than it was last year, having had a new antenna installed in March. It’s also being painted a subtle gold colour in time for the 2024 Olympic Games, part of a broader campaign to get the city spick and span. The National Assembly building is under scaffolding, and it’s finally been decided Notre Dame should be rebuilt exactly as it was before the 2019 fire.
Marin Montagut
This atelier, the vision of the eponymous Monsieur Montagut, an artist and filmmaker, is around the corner from the Luxembourg gardens. It sells quintessentially French homewares that transport shoppers to the Paris of yesteryear. Handblown glass, handpainted ceramics, silk scarves, cushion covers and wall hangings printed with olde worlde maps are among the charming goods on display.
Musee de Carnavalet
After four years of extensive renovations inside and out, Paris’s oldest museum (1880) has reopened in the Marais. Devoted to the history of the city, it has almost 4000 items dating from prehistory to the present on display. What was once a rather dusty, chaotic establishment has been brought into the 21st century while preserving the former hotel’s Renaissance architecture.
Areilles Chateau, Versailles
Marie-Antoinette would have loved the bed chambers at this opulent abode, which opened last June in the grounds of the grand palace. Beds, walls and curtains are a riot of florals, along with Regency-style furnishings and plush rugs on parquetry floors. Alain Ducasse is in charge of cuisine, a butler is at your disposal and guests have after-hours access to the Hall of Mirrors and can explore the grounds in electric golf carts.
PENNY HUNTER