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Paris Trio

This winter season brings a flurry of hotel openings in the City of Light, from small designer enclaves to big-name chains, like Shangri-La and Mandarin Oriental (the latter scheduled to debut early next year). An Indagare editor will visit Paris next spring to report on these major openings; last month, Indagare contributor Elena Bowes recently visited a trio of unique properties and reported on her finds. Here is her dispatch.

PAVILLON DES LETTRES

“Two weeks ago I went to Paris to see the annual Paris Photo exhibit at the Louvre and stay in the new, much publicized Pavillon des Lettres. It’s the sister hotel to Pavillon de la Reine, on Place des Vosges in Le Marais, of which I’d heard rave reviews. Sadly, Pavillon des Lettres didn’t live up to the hype. Each of the twenty-six rooms is given a letter of the alphabet associated with an author: I stayed in ‘K for Kafka’ and my girlfriend, Elizabeth, in J for James. There was a single book by Kafka in K and some of his quotations on the wall, but not really enough to inspire any literary musings.

While the staff were friendly enough, I was disappointed in Des Lettres for several reasons. Its location near several government administrative buildings was, as my driver put it, ‘on the wrong side of the eight.’ It’s around the corner from the Élysée Palace, so whenever President Sarkozy moves, traffic halts. Personally, I also prefer straightforward hotels (as well as someone to show me how everything works and instructions in a drawer for when I invariably forget everything I was just told.) At Des Lettres I got flummoxed by the shower/bath knobs two days in a row, so that I took a shower when I really craved a bath. The bathroom sink was long and shallow meaning that filling the trough-like space took ages; and at bedtime it took me forever to find the light switch by the bed. Also, the mini-bar selection was less-than-inspired.”

ROYAL MONCEAU

“The next day I travelled to the other spectrum of the hotel universe to the newly unveiled Le Royal Monceau, Raffles Paris, a grande dame property that has been thoroughly revamped by designer Philippe Starck. True, it’s in a stratospherically higher price range than the Pavillon des Lettres (rooms start at €700 and go up to €10,000). But there’s no false advertising—it bills itself as an over-the-top, luxe designer showpiece. Both the public and private rooms are pure Starck fantasy, with eye-catching art, sleek bar designs and witty touches throughout. I liked the black-and-white photography in the main dining room, the over-sized chandeliers and the opulent seashell-designed Orangerie, which houses Carpaccio, the hotel’s top-end Italian restaurant. Art lovers will appreciate the hotel’s full-time art concierge, a street-level art gallery exhibiting works by Jean Michel Basquiat and a weekly art menu in the rooms. Starcks’s whimsical flair is omnipresent from the blackboard-style pillars in the main restaurant where everything from the daily specials to the weather forecast to the exact time of sunrise/sunset is scrawled in chalk to the bedroom lampshades with scribbled ‘to do’s’ like go to the gym or watch the stars. Every room has a guitar for strumming. The Royal Monceau is fun and chic, possibly too busy and visually hectic for some, but definitely worth checking out for a cocktail or more.”

LENOX

“My quest to find the perfect place to stay in Paris which is charming, affordable and well-located took me to the Hôtel Lenox (9 Rue de l’Université, 33-1-42-96-10-95), where James Joyce apparently wrote Ulysses. It’s just been renovated, located smack in the seventh arrondissement and has a fun Art Deco bar. I think the Lennox will be my next Parisian port of call. But I must remember to ask for the airy deluxe rooms on the corner, which benefit from windows on two sides. And at €240 a night, the price is right on budget.”

Read Indagare’s full destination report on Paris

Find out where Indagare’s Insiders love in Paris

Read a member postcard on traveling in Paris with a teenager

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A number of our editors have just returned from Paris. Some of their new favorite discoveries:

WHERE TO EAT

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Get yourself in the mood by reading the newly published Hungry For Paris. Alexander Lobrano, one of Indagare’s favorite food writers, reveals his favorite 102 restaurants.

BIG NIGHT OUT: Alain Ducasse’s transformation of Le Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower is a resounding success. Do what you must to get a reservation and go for lunch or dinner.

RELAXED BUT REFINED: Michelin-starred chef Christian Constant has created another hit—and one that won’t be a major hit to your wallet with his new Les Cocottes de Christian Constant.

QUICK BREAK: Announcing: Fauchon Le Café. Last week the most flat-out flamboyant café to open on the Right Bank in ages was unveiled in the Place de la Madeleine, where the gourmet Fauchon has stood for more than a century.

WHAT TO SEE

Speaking of flamboyant, do not miss the new Marie-Antoinette exhibit, which debuted on March 15th at the Grand Palais. The drama of this queen has been evoked brilliantly through art and objects.

Families traveling to Paris for more than a few days in spring or summer should consider a great family day trip to Chantilly.

Read a member postcard on their recent Paris trip and its kid-friendly highs and lows. Plus neighborhood restaurant tips.

WHERE TO SHOP

Two unusual new accessories shops are Jerome Dreyfuss and Causse Gantier (above). Plus: the city’s sexiest new lingerie shop: Vannina Vesperini.

The buzzed-about women’s clothing boutiques not to miss: Blumarine and Heimstone. Plus: how to hit the French outlet shops.

WHERE TO STAY

And as promised, we have added hotels that are a good value in the age of a weak dollar, including ones designed by David Hicks, Christian Lacroix and Jacques Garcia on the Left Bank and a special new find in the Marais. Plus: for those not deterred by the exchange rate and enamored with Paris’ palaces, there’s Fouquet’s Barrière, the newest grand option off the Champs-Elysée.

WHERE TO RECHARGE

The city’s newest spa retreat is one on the Faubourg St.-Honoré from designer Anne Fontaine.

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Modernists can now buy mini Eames rocking chairs, translucent Kartell tables and pint-sized Philippe Starck Ghost chairs for their toddlers at Balouga, a fabulous new children’s-furniture showroom in the Marais. While parents plot contemporary kids’ interiors, their children can amuse themselves with incredible wooden toys and puzzles. The founders of Bonton have added a new label, and Serendipity has opened a large boutique in St.-Germain. Read about these and more in Where to Shop: For Children. And when you’re done shopping, take the little ones to the newly revamped Angélina, the city’s legendary tea salon.

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French chefs’ trend toward casual dining, known as “le fooding,” has reached a new extreme, with some of the most talked-about restaurants feeling like simple country kitchens. Frenchie, which Wendy Lyn tipped us off to, has brick walls, a dozen tables and its menu scrawled on a blackboard. Crudus —like Glou, in the Marais, and Ferdi, in the 1st arrondissement—features old-fashioned cooking and organic produce with an Italian emphasis and has been drawing Rue St.-Honoré shoppers with market specials like stuffed eggplant and fresh pasta with mushrooms. Read about these and other noteworthy new Paris restaurants at Paris Newcomers.

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Fans of the beloved landmark Deyrolle will be relieved to know that it has reopened and that its restoration is so masterful no one would guess it was consumed by fire two years ago. The façade, the staircase, the grand rooms on the second floor—which house its collection of stuffed animals and rare insects, fossils and sea creatures—and the Prince Jardininer boutique on the first floor look just as they did before the blaze. To read more, see Where to Shop for the Home.

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Two of the most exciting new restaurants to open this fall in Paris are in the 8th arrondissement, not far from the Champs-Elysées. 114 Faubourg, which commands the corner space in the new wing of the Bristol hotel was designed by Europe’s most sought-after party planner, Guendalina Litta Modignani—no surprise that Carla Bruni Sarkozy fits right in. The other reservation to get is at Les Enfants Terribles. Helming the open kitchen at the seriously stylish restaurant—created by chic hotel designers Jocelyn and Jean Louis Sibuet, of La Bastide de Marie and Villa Marie —is François Martin, a protégé of Marc Veyrat, Read about these and other noteworthy new Paris restaurants, including the latest from the Costes brothers, at Paris Where to Eat: Newcomers.

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Air France really is the way to go to and from Paris now that it has the biggest planes crossing the Atlantic and has enhanced the first-class experience so that it trumps flying private. Leaving from Charles de Gaulle, you go first to a special door for a private security screening and then straight to La Première lounge (designed by one of the Aga Khan’s favorite designers), where you can have a complimentary massage in the spa or invite a friend (not necessarily a fellow first-class flyer) for an Alain Ducasse dinner. At boarding time, you descend to a James Bond–worthy salon, where a Mercedes awaits to whisk you to the plane. For more on Air France’s A380 and La Première, whose recent guests have included Brad Pitt and George Clooney, see Paris: Getting There.

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The legendary Guerlain, which has temples of beauty on the Champs-Elysées and in St.-Germain, has opened an exquisite new branch in the Marais. In keeping with the more-bohemian vibe of the neighborhood, this store is less formal than the others, with the atmosphere of a modern woman’s dressing room. Note: This is one of the few places to buy great perfume or makeup on Sundays. Read more on Beauty.

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The palace hotels of Paris have engaged in one-upmanship for years. After the Four Seasons took over the Georges V, it became the place to stay. Then the totally renovated Plaza Athénée captured the buzz. Next the gutted and redone Le Meurice grabbed the honors for most sparkle and snap-to service. Now the Hôtel Le Bristol, which has been undergoing a major makeover during the past few years, has opened a gorgeous new wing and restaurant and has le tout Paris talking. Read a full review of the Bristol.

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For those who love adding French flair to their homes, there are two new showrooms of note, plus exciting news from Charvet. Interior designer India Mahdavi, whose projects include glamming up the restaurant and bar of London’s Connaught, and creating huge buzz for Café Germain, the Costes brothers’ latest Paris hot spot, has opened a showroom on the Left Bank where you can pick up her signature sinewy side tables. Over on the Right Bank, architects Domeau & Pérès’ new gallery near Place de la République displays their custom leather tables and sink-in cube chairs. Most exciting of all, perhaps, is that Charvet, the legendary shirtmaker, has launched a line of linens for the house as well as fabrics by the yard for upholstery. For more, read Paris: Where to Shop: For the Home.

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The famous department store Printemps has emerged from a major face-lift. The same architects who spiffed up Bergdorf Goodman, in New York, have given the historic store modern refinement. The concept: a chic Parisian apartment with lots of glass, mirrors, white marble, black steel and such accents as Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chairs. Among the deluxe improvements are a Ladurée counter on the first floor; a legendary in-house fashion editor; and on the seventh floor, the Happy Garden, 27,000 square feet devoted to the best children’s clothing for the next generation, from 0 to 16, of fashionistas. Read more.

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Those who want an iconic view in Paris can find no better room than 1 or 5 at La Reserve Paris, which has the most stunning direct views of the Eiffel Tower imaginable. The town house, on Place du Trocadéro, contains 10 apartments, each serenely decorated in a contemporary style, and boasts a crack staff that can deliver everything from nannies and bicycles to Michelin-starred chefs. One guest stayed for a month and took French lessons daily. I want to come back and invite friends for dinner with the most memorable view in Paris. Read more at Where to Stay.

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Who doesn’t have their favorite Left Bank hotel? The problem is that the secret gets out, and then snagging a room in on a busy weekend in April or October becomes impossible. Now a gorgeous new small hotel caters to those who want to stay in the heart of St.-Germain while avoiding the crowds. French Elle Decor has already declared the Hôtel Récamier the “chic new address in St.-Germain-des-Prés.” Sylvie de Lattre, a veteran hotelier and Left Bank insider is behind the project, so your stay will be as smooth as it is stylish. For more, read Where to Stay: Newcomers.

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Last year for the first time a Christmas market was set up along a stretch of the Champs-Elysées. This year the little white cottage-like stalls selling hot chocolate, cider, roasted chestnuts and all sorts of holiday decorations and gifts are back. Last week actress Charlotte Gainsbourg turned on the lights festooning the trees bordering the avenue from the Arc de Triomphe all the way to the Place de la Concorde, sending a bright invitation to come and make merry.

Last week, Melissa Biggs Bradley traveled to Paris on the inaugural flight of Air France’s A380, the world’s biggest and greenest (most fuel-efficient) plane, which now flies to and from Paris daily. Read her review of the A380 journey. Once arrived, she discovered the capital abuzz with recent openings, renovations and exciting debuts in the hotel, restaurant and shopping scenes. Here are her top twelve to seek out when traveling to Paris this season.

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William Ledeuil, recently named chef of the year by Gault Millau, has opened a less formal version of his adored Ze Kitchen Galerie just down the street. Called KGB, for Kitchen Galerie Bis, the new spot could be mistaken for a Left Bank art gallery, its design is so spare. The food, however, delivers the same fabulous Asian flavors as the more expensive original. Read about these and other noteworthy new Paris restaurants at Paris Newcomers.