Paris: Hotel Envy

In French high society, your most frequented hotel addresses define your character, your cliques, and your financial status. But fortunately for most Americans visiting Paris, a short lived haute hotel stay translates into a welcomed, simple cameo into the social drama and ostentation of the Parisian high life. The glares, the stares, the pompous glory, and insolent body language are all part of the game at Paris’s seven palace hotels. Two are explored below. 

Plaza Athénée Paris

Of the forty internationally recognized 5 star hotels scattered throughout the “City of Lights,” a select few garner global reverence, none more so than Plaza Athénée, backdrop for Carrie Bradshaw’s ephemeral Parisian life in the final episodes of Sex in the City. While the episodes were not originally scheduled for filming at Athénée, the legacy of the show’s prodigious marketing power has bestowed the infamous hotel with an unrelenting influx of gay men and femme fatales living out the “Carrie Bradshaw fantasy.” 

However, for nearly 100 years, Athénée (Reservations Link) has reigned as a celeb-stacked paragon with the likes of Grace Kelly and Jackie Kennedy patronizing the emblematic Haussmann masterpiece. The hotel is universally recognized for its geranium-clad exterior, 1900 luminous red flowers spread over 380 baskets on guest room windows. The dramatic red versus neutral contrast theme remains throughout the ornately furnished lobby and common areas, where hotel guests and visitors snack on light bites and sip cappuccinos, dressed to kill in their haute couture and oversized sunglasses. After all, Paris’s most fashionable (and most expensive) street, Avenue Montaigne, lies just outside the entrance, joining the Champs Elysées a few blocks later. 

Plaza Athénée (Reservations Link) is more of an experience than a hotel; one which demands significant time on property to truly absorb the intricacies, the address’ celebrity, and the decadent French snobbery. The hotel employs only the finest in every facet of operation - from hand crafted classic French style furniture in guest rooms to the world’s most renowned chef, Alain Ducasse, in its signature restaurant. Most suites command an exceptional view of Paris’ number one attraction, the Eiffel Tower, from the balcony. The service levels are nothing less than exceptional. And the raspberry macaroons by World Cake and Pastries Champion, Christophe Michalak, are to die for! 

Hôtel Fouquet’s Barrière Paris

Pushing the boundaries of tradition has always stirred up controversy in France. In 1887 the cutting-edge Eiffel Tower instigated a well-publicized debacle, a war of words in newspapers where Parisians vehemently opposed construction of what famous French novelist Joris-Karl Huysmans called a giant, iron “hole-riddled suppository." A century later the moans and groans filled “Gai Paris,” when architect Ieoh Ming Pei was commissioned to design vanguard glass pyramids juxtaposed against Louvre’s classical architecture. And the situation was no different in 2006 when Paris welcomed its first modern “palace” hotel, much to the chagrin of the long- standing “palace” powerhouses - Four Seasons Hotel George V Paris, Hotel Plaza Athénée, Hôtel, Le Meurice, Hotel Le Bristol, Hotel Ritz, and Hotel de Crillon. While the coveted “palace” label still stirs controversy in the hotel industry and among social circles, this could very well be Paris’s best hotel to date. 

Fouquet’s (Reservations Link) contemporary flair is a delectable respite from the sometimes-inflexible traditional disposition of Paris. The decor and the design have not compromised the character that defines the city; it simply presents an evolution of style and avant-garde luxury. The love affair with Le Fouquet’s  (Reservations Link) begins upon entry- blinded by giant diamonds and Murano glass chandeliers, intrigued by the upholstered and embroidered chocolate leather walls, and inexplicably drawn to the fabulous, gilded Rococo furniture and ornaments (for Facebook pictures), first impressions metamorphose into riveting sensory overload. The immaculate marble floors surface at the far end of the lobby as a grand staircase, leading to the well manicured, verdant urban lounge garden and the incomparable Le Diane restaurant (in my opinion, Paris’ top restaurant). This majesty is matched by the fairy tale suites, bathed in golds, coppers, browns and beiges and adorned with massive bed posts that reach the ceiling, high tech gadgetry that belongs in Japan, and damask curtains that open up to sublime views of Avenue George V, the Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe. Compared to its “palace” competitors, the dress code is more informal, the demographic younger, and the stuffiness factor almost nonexistent. Much like the Eiffel Tower and the glass pyramids of the Louvre, Hôtel Fouquet’s Barrière  (Reservations Link) is slowly weaving its way into Paris’ social fabric. It’s only a matter of time before this hidden luxury gem bombards the lists of Travel & Leisure and Condé Nast, and the “palace” demagogue rises to power.