Paris: the hottest hotels to visit during the 2024 Olympics
Whilst this year’s summer season hasn’t exactly taken off weather-wise here in the UK, the landing of 2024’s Olympic games in Paris has set the world aflame with excitement, and France’s capital has been the word on the tip of every influencer’s tongue. As one of the world’s top fashion and design cities, we thought we’d take a moment to admire Paris’s offering of exquisitely designed hotels – so here are a few of our faves for you to visit if you’re in town at the moment…
Ah gay Paree, city of romance, sophistication, and superb taste. The French capital is well-known for being effortlessly chic, having the sort of style many around the world attempt to imitate but few achieve. Following our ‘Designer’s guide to boutique hotels in Paris’ we thought we’d elaborate on some of the city’s best hospitality offerings:
Image credit: Le Grand Mazarin
Newly opened last autumn, Le Grand Mazarin not only offers the perfect destination to enjoy the wonders of the French capital, it also presents the opportunity to experience true well-being and channel your inner athlete, with its stunning wellness and fitness space. For an experience of ultimate luxury, the indoor swimming pool, complete with a jacuzzi and hammam, invites guests to relax and unwind, underneath the stunning ceiling painted by artist Jacques Merle.
In the heart of the Marais district, the 5-star hotel boasts 61 rooms and suites, a restaurant, winter garden, and a secret cabaret bar. Taking its lead from the location the hotel’s décor and interior design is both elegant and flamboyant – well, you wouldn’t expect anything less from Martin Brudnizki, would you?
A true gem in this vibrant city, it’s one of our favourites for fashionable flair with a nod to French tradition and refinery.
InterContinental Paris Le Grand
Image credit: IHG Hotels & Resorts
If it’s history and decadence you’re after, one hotel immediately springs to mind: InterContinental Paris Le Grand, which takes some beating for elevated luxury.
Built at the request of Emperor Napoleon III who had his heart set on building the grandest hotel in Europe, the doors officially opened in 1862 with a gala event hosted by Empress Eugénie. The scale and opulence of the property was unprecedented: 800 rooms, 40 bathrooms, and with the world’s first hydraulic elevator and hydrotherapy treatments.
With the latest renovation by Pierre-Yves Rochon, the room count dropped from 470 to 458 rooms, of which 90 are suites. Added to this are Rochon’s five newly created Signature Suites which were designed to feel like chic Parisian apartments, each with a unique aesthetic.
The hotel’s sumptuous rooms and suites look over the world-famous Opera Garnier, and gastronomic delights await at the legendary Café de la Paix which serves the great classics of French cuisine. It is the ideal venue to experience the French art of living.
Image credit: Accor
SO/Paris encapsulates everything we love about modern French living – the simplicity of the chic interiors at this hotel is exactly what we’re referring to when we say French style is often imitated but rarely achieved to the same degree.
Housed in a 1966 structure designed by architects Albert Laprade, Pierre-Victoire Fournier and René Fontaine, SO/Paris now features urban arches created by architecture firms David Chipperfield Architects and CALQ as part of the La Félicité Paris, Sully-Morland complex, which transformed former municipal building – the Cité Administrative de Paris – into the capital’s new hospitality hub just a couple of years ago.
Elegant, warm and vibrant, the guestrooms and suites, designed by the architectural firm RDAI, echo the SO/ spirit of redefining Parisian luxe with style. Filled with life and light, the interior decor is inspired by the origins of the city of Paris itself, a total immersion into contemporary art inspired by the city’s iconic fashion sense. On the top two floors of the hotel, Bonnie is the hotel’s restaurant, bar, club and smoking room designed by Jordane Arrivetz, founder of the Notoire agency.
Image credit: Orso Hotels
Mon ami, if you’re searching for a grown-up Parisian boutique deeply connected to its locale, Hôtel Rochechouart is it! Established in 1929 and now part of the Orso Hotels portfolio, this hotel is bathed in the glitz and glamour of the capital’s vibrant Pigalle district.
An Art Deco shrine, the interiors offer a level of sultry mystique and have been built on the values of husband and wife team Anouk and Louis Solanet (the founders of Orso Hôtels), who are on a mission to ‘return to the lost art of hospitality and bring back the often forgotten values and welcoming spirit of the hotel industry that are the essence of true travel experiences’.
With one of the best views in Paris to be seen from the property’s rooftop, this nifty hotel really is the whole package.
Image credit: Hotel Beauregard
Chloé Nègre, the designer responsible for the interiors of Hôtel Beauregard, says, “this is the hotel I would dream of if I were a tourist travelling to Paris.”
Practically built on top of the Eiffel Tower, Hôtel Beauregard sits in an elegant six-storey Haussman building on the crossroads of rue de Vaugirard and rue Cambronne, and frames enviable views of the landmark from the majority of its rooms.
Nègre has married classic and contemporary influences in Touriste’s signature tongue-in-cheek style – invoking Parisian clichés and nods to the Seventies across the six floors. Elegance and intuition are the hallmarks of the French designer who is known for her intuitive approach to design and decoration.
Quirky character is rife in this pretty hotel where inspiration has been taken from bourgeois residences to combine both classic and contemporary styling.
Image credit: Les Bains Paris
Described in the Michelin Guide as ‘one of the world’s most exciting hotels’, Les Bains Paris certainly has a reputation for being ‘the place to be seen’.
Designed by architect Vincent Bastie with interiors by designers Tristan Auer and Denis Montel (think Hermes boutique design), the façade and architecture nods clearly to Parisian history, while the design details are a daring play on light and dark which is amplified throughout.
Design moods shift as quickly as the light in this hotel as you move from tranquil guestroom space to atmospheric salons and bijoux bars. With curated art events, its own boutique concept store along with other hip happenings and events, this is a contemporary destination that always has something unique on its agenda.
Main image credit: Le Grand Mazarin
