Town’s latest motels placing a contemporary twist on traditional stylish

The constructing that homes the Kimpton St Honoré Paris was initially dwelling to the Samaritaine de Luxe division retailer. In a curious coincidence, the Kimpton will not be the one new lodge on the town to have opened up in a former department of La Samaritaine. Down by the Pont Neuf, the Cheval Blanc Paris has opened as a part of a 16-year redevelopment of La Samaritaine’s flagship constructing.

With its gleaming double-height foyer, Cheval Blanc Paris makes a dramatic first impression. Within the rooms, designer Peter Marino’s glossy-yet-subdued interiors give satisfaction of place to the lodge’s best asset: its extraordinary views.

No different lodge in Paris affords such front-row views throughout the Seine. In case your funds doesn’t stretch to one of many premium river-facing suites, the identical panorama could be soaked up from the lodge’s all-day bistro, Le-Tout Paris, one among 4 in-house eating places and bars together with Plénitude, from three-Michelin star chef Arnaud Donckele.

For now, town could also be contemporary out of department shops to renovate, however Paris is rarely wanting historic buildings able to be repurposed. In Pigalle, Soho Home lately opened its first Paris property in a mansion that was as soon as the household dwelling of Jean Cocteau.

The corporate’s in-house design staff has paid tribute to the artist with drawings in Cocteau’s free-flowing fashion adorning the stairwell, and sourced a variety of opulent furnishings – canopied beds, classic velvet sofas and material patterns from Maison Pierre Frey’s archive – to harmonise with unique options akin to plaster mouldings and imposing wood doorways.

Over within the second arrondissement, Resort du Sentier shares its constructing with town’s oldest coated passageway, the Passage du Caire. It’s simple sufficient to seek out: simply search for the carved heads of the Egyptian goddess Hathor and you realize you’re in the correct place. (The Passage du Caire was conceived in the course of the “Egyptomania” that swept France after Napoleon’s expedition to Egypt, which can also be mirrored within the names of close by streets such because the rue du Nil and rue d’Alexandrie.)

This lodge is homely in the very best sense of the phrase, with homeowners Charlotte and Samuel Castro emphasising the non-public contact. In actual fact, Charlotte Castro says, “I really feel so strongly about this challenge that the primary yr, I feel that I’ll personally stroll every visitor to their room.”

Ornamentation is eschewed: “no ornament, solely supplies” is the Castro motto. The lodge restaurant has comforting classics akin to blanquette de veau on the menu, whereas the homeowners’ dedication to sustainability is demonstrated by shortening meals provide chains and decking out workers in vegan leather-based Dr. Martens boots.

Additionally working the home-away-from-home vibe is J.Ok. Place Paris. For its first foray outdoors Italy, the boutique lodge group selected a Left Financial institution location between the Boulevard St Germain and the Seine, near the Musee d’Orsay.

In step with J.Ok. Place’s low-key fashion, the doorway to the lodge – previously the Norwegian embassy – is so discreet that it’s simple to stroll proper previous. Inside, the bottom ground consists of a collection of sitting rooms flowing into one another, after which on to the restaurant and bar. Sofas and armchairs are organized to offer loads of inviting nooks to sit down, and facet tables are piled excessive with shiny espresso desk books to browse.

The lodge’s opening could have been badly timed – only a matter of months after it opened its doorways on the finish of 2019, France plunged into its first lockdown – however in each different side, the lodge hits the mark. Hovering ceilings and panelled partitions – oak in a single room, plaster reliefs in one other – present the right backdrop for the eclectic furnishings, a mixture of bespoke items and objects that designer Michele Bonan sourced from Paris’ flea markets, together with a set of lamps by Jacques Adnet for Hermes. Every room is individually adorned, however marble fireplaces and handmade Italian beds are normal subject.

Many motels declare to deal with their friends as household; J.Ok. Place is among the few that delivers on that promise, from small touches akin to free mini-bars, to genuinely heat, personalised service. (This staff will always remember how you might have your espresso, or martini.)

A spa, gymnasium (private coaching is obtainable on request) and a glass-enclosed courtyard restaurant that serves up very good Italian meals are the icing on the cake.

After all, the low-key strategy will not be for everybody. In case you would favor a lodge that dials up the drama a little bit, Madame Reve Resort could fit your fashion. Every little thing about this lodge is attention-getting, from the woody scent that permeates its corridors to its location, across the nook from the Louvre and proper subsequent door to town’s latest museum, the Pinault Assortment at La Bourse.

Unusually for a boutique property, the lodge has two eating places in addition to a spa, and its burnished color palette envelops even essentially the most compact rooms with a heat glow. Nevertheless, it’s in its public areas that Madame Reve actually shines.

It’s a toss-up as to which space is essentially the most memorable. A 1000 square-metre rooftop – straddled with Eiffel-inspired girders that create a parasol impact – gives an inviting summer season playground, however the Madame Reve Café is Paris at its seductive greatest. The magnificent double-height house, with its wood bar, its imposing columns and its cascading drapes, was initially designed as a put up workplace corridor – a reminder of yet one more factor we envy within the French: their means to deliver a way of event to any exercise, even one as mundane as posting a letter.

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Kimpton St Honoré Paris kimptonsthonoreparis.com

Cheval Blanc Paris chevalblanc.com

Soho Home Paris sohohouse.com

Resort du Sentier hoteldusentier.com

Madame Reve madamereve.com

The author stayed as a visitor of Kimpton St Honoré Paris and Madame Reve.