Designed by the most talented hotel interior designers, those design hotels will awake your senses to an incredible luxury travel and hotel experience in The City of Light.
Hotel Daniel – Rue Frederic Bastiat
While the term ‘urban retreat’ is much too liberally used, the 26-room Hotel Daniel in Paris really feels like one. Tucked away between the Champs-Elysées and rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, this Relais & Châteaux hotel combines the intimacy of a private townhouse – one feels immediately at home in the reception rooms, which double as tea salons – with the sophistication of an international hotel. The interior designer Tarfa Salam has fused East and West, deliciously atmospheric 19th-century France with the very latest modern technology, decorating interiors with exquisite Asian antiques, bespoke contemporary furniture and vibrant hand-painted chinoiserie-inspired wallpaper. In classic Haussmann style, rooms on the second and the sixth floor have balconies. The hotel also has a gourmet traditional French restaurant whose menu is injected with subtle oriental influences, in keeping with the rest of the hotel (for example, honey-roasted lamb and chickpeas in Sichuan jus; Roquefort soufflé with pear and lemon thyme), and a lounge and bar offering a very good all-day breakfast.
Hotel de Vendome – Place Vendome
One of five chic Left Bank hotels within the forward-thinking Hôtels Paris Rive Gauche group, the 38-room Hôtel de la Sorbonne is right across the street from the university and close to the boutiques of St Germain. After a major refurbishment by the owners, Pascale and Corinne Moncelli, the hotel has emerged bold and vibrant with individually decorated bedrooms, Regency-style chairs upholstered in refreshingly bright peacock blues, lime greens and silver, carpets with excerpts from classic French literature woven in and graphic botanical-print wallpaper. Every bedroom is different – some have claw-foot baths, others lavish four-posters. Each comes with its own iMac computer, which provides free access to the internet and a means to play DVDs. The hotel group has long supported contemporary artists and photographers, and the revamped Design de la Sorbonne provides the perfect gallery space for a whole new set of creatives. Themes of the work currently on display include ‘explorers and great travellers’, ‘Sorbonne University’ and ‘the passing of time
Hotel Pavilion de la Reine – Place de Vosges
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The largest of these four hotels, but so intimate that you’d never know it, the 54-room Hôtel Pavilion de la Reine, which dates from the 19th century, is situated on Place des Vosges, the prettiest square in the Marais, if not Paris. Privately owned, family-run and accessed via a leafy private courtyard, the hidden-gem stakes are high, so much so that Jean Paul Gaultier quietly checked in for a year while his place was being redecorated. The hotel has recently undergone a major refurbishment, and the result is both cosy and glamorous with a sleek contemporary look that incorporates plum-coloured walls, tactile velvet throws and historic portraits. The foyer feels like a private library and leads into a series of intimate seating areas. It’s the sort of place where people grab a drink from the honesty bar and flop in front of the fire. Other new features include the two-treatment-room Spa de la Reine by Carita, which has a Jacuzzi, hammam and gymnasium, and a series of interconnecting rooms ideal for families.
Hotel Design de la Sorbonne – Rue Victor Cousin
One of five chic Left Bank hotels within the forward-thinking Hôtels Paris Rive Gauche group, the 38-room Hôtel de la Sorbonne is right across the street from the university and close to the boutiques of St Germain. After a major refurbishment by the owners, Pascale and Corinne Moncelli, the hotel has emerged bold and vibrant with individually decorated bedrooms, Regency-style chairs upholstered in refreshingly bright peacock blues, lime greens and silver, carpets with excerpts from classic French literature woven in and graphic botanical-print wallpaper. Every bedroom is different – some have claw-foot baths, others lavish four-posters. Each comes with its own iMac computer, which provides free access to the internet and a means to play DVDs. The hotel group has long supported contemporary artists and photographers, and the revamped Design de la Sorbonne provides the perfect gallery space for a whole new set of creatives. Themes of the work currently on display include ‘explorers and great travellers’, ‘Sorbonne University’ and ‘the passing of time’.
