Six years and many millions of dollars in the making, Les Airelles Château de Versailles Le Grand Contrôle was arguably the biggest hotel news of the decade when it opened in 2021. Not for its size. It features only 14 rooms and suites. Nor for its groundbreaking style. It is more of a faithful restoration of an 18th-century building than a style statement. (Its French architects, artisans and designers vetted almost every detail with the historians of Versailles to ensure period accuracy.) The “wow” here is that the hotel is located in an original building on the grounds of Versailles; the hotel makes history by making history immersive.

Liveried footmen greet you at the towering arched doorway to usher you across a courtyard of potted palms and orange trees into a hall decorated with royal portraits, gilt mirrors, antique desks and Sevres porcelain. (Ninety percent of the furniture is 18th-century antiques.) Guest rooms are swathed in Pierre Frey fabrics that are printed with historical patterns sourced from the palace archives, and have been updated with modern comforts like minibars tucked into armoires and large bathrooms with claw-footed tubs—though televisions are absent. Nowhere are the cookie-cutter marble bathrooms of most modern five-star hotels; the aesthetic remains authentic 18th-century.

A few hours after checking in, each guest at Le Grand Contrôle can enter the private apartments of Versailles (the King’s or Queen’s) after the monument has closed. For two hours, a curator leads an exploration of the Palace of Versailles. We visited the newly restored royal chapel, the King’s apartments and the Hall of Mirrors, which is included with every booking. After touring the family chapel and bedrooms, peeking into the King’s private library and locked desk and returning via the 2,000-acre gardens and its famous Orangerie, which contains trees descended from Louis XIV’s original grove, it was impossible not to feel dropped into a fairy-tale evening. And it continued with a five-course Alain Ducasse dinner on the garden-facing terrace, heralded by trumpets and delivered by waiters in brocade uniforms.

When women in bustled silk gowns came to invite us to a game of whist after dinner, for an instant I did think it a tad Disneyesque; but I quickly fell back under the spell of the moment. Harpsichord music played under the stars as we retired to a candlelit salon for tea and a crash course in whist. Experiential luxury has become a travel buzzword, with many hotels tacking on special experiences, but this truly is a once-in-a-lifetime privilege. No Instagram photo can capture staying in the grand scale or stupendous beauty of the Sun King’s vision for a full 24 hours. Because after sleeping in hallowed halls, a French breakfast in all its fanfare of pastries, fresh fruit and warm dishes is served on the terrace or grand dining room, and another visit follows—either to the Grand Trianon, the Petit Trianon or the Hameau de la Reine before they open to the public. One can walk, or ride a bike or a golf cart, to the monument of the morning, allowing for true appreciation of the massive scope of Louis XIV’s ambition. There is also an excellent Valmont Spa for some self-pampering.  And at an additional cost, guests can choose from multiple, only-at-Versailles private experiences: a visit to see the collection of the palace’s Central Library; a Marie Antoinette dress-up session and photo-shoot, with costumes from the series Versailles; a dinner in the former apartments of Louis XIV’s daughters, a tour of the Queen’s vegetable garden followed by a cooking class; an entire Marie Antoinette day, beginning with a Queen’s Ritual wake-up; an aerial tour over the palace. 

The real magic of Le Grand Contrôle, of course, is that it puts history and its fashioners within reach. It offers an experience so immersive that it allows you to imagine a conversation with a king across centuries.

Built in 1928, the George V is a temple to Art Deco French design, renovated by Pierre-Yves Rochon in 2018 with a stunning attention to detail. The handsome lobby is decorated with gorgeous arrangements by American floral designer Jeff Leatham, and check-in is all smiles and kid gloves. Smiles and kid gloves sum up this place, as it offers the perfect hybrid of courtly old-world charm and North American efficiency. The hotel's 244 rooms are spacious and impeccably maintained, with fresh floral patterns and a lovely pastel color palette. Eleven individually designed eleven suites offer Parisian apartment-style living.

The spa, pool and small gym are top-notch, and the hotel is home to not one, not two, but three Michelin-starred restaurants, making it a staple in Paris’s fine-dining scene (the three-starred Le Cinq is one of the great restaurants in Paris, and Le Bar is a must for after-dinner cocktails).

Sitting on the idyllic peninsula between Nice and Monaco, Grand-Hôtel du Cap-Ferrat is one of the South of France’s most elegant, iconic properties.

On the Place de la Concorde, the palatial Hôtel de Crillon hotel in Paris, France has glamorous interiors that fuse opulence with a sleek aesthetic. 

One of the French Riviera’s most iconic properties, the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc sits on the tip of the Cap-de-Antibes (with its famous swimming pool).

The only grande dame hotel on Paris's charming Left Bank, Hôtel Lutetia offers five-star accommodations with a unique flourish.

Read Indagare's review of the iconic Hôtel Ritz Paris on Place Vendôme—the famed haunt of Coco Chanel, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others.

Located in the mostly residential 8th arrondissement, La Réserve Paris Hotel & Spa is one of Indagare's favorite boutique hotels in Paris.

La Réserve Ramatuelle Hotel, Spa & Villas serves up St. Tropez’s biggest wow factor for travelers in search of a truly five-star experience.

Le Bristol Paris, with its elegance and superb location on the Rue du Faubourg St.-Honoré, is one of the top palace properties in Paris, France.

Tucked away on a quiet side street in Paris' bustling sixth arrondissement, the Relais Christine Paris is a hidden gem of a boutique hotel.

A modern art wonderland in a blissfuly remote corner of Provence, Villa La Coste has sophisticated rooms, an on-property vineyard and an open-air museum.

Visitors to Aix-en-Provence have long marveled at its lovely stone fountains and ornately sculpted, arched doorways. Savvy travelers, however, can experience one of the stunning private mansions up close. This exclusive bed-and-breakfast occupies a majestic 17th-century building, located in the quiet residential Mazarin neighborhood. The three-story maison sits just minutes away from Aix’s buzzing Cours Mirabeau and the Granet Museum. Interiors were conceived by the same design trio (Gil Dez, Charles Montemarco and Daniel Jouve) who masterminded the sumptuous Villa Gallici nearby. The owner has also refurbished the ground-floor reception area, as well as the first floor, which includes a comfortable salon and a breakfast room.

Ring the discreet doorbell, and you’ll be graciously ushered into what feels like someone’s dream home, complete with antiques, gilded mirrors and Murano chandeliers. A monumental staircase leads to the spacious rooms, each individually designed. Suite 1 is decked out with a canopy bed and sculptural light fixtures. Suite 2 is less grand but the two rooms can connect, so it’s great for families traveling with children. One floor up, Suite 3 boasts a private terrace, and Suite 4 has a Philippe Starck-designed bathtub. All are outfitted with fluffy duvets, flat-screen TVs, Bang & Olufsen speakers and velvety armchairs and sofas.

The owner is on hand to arrange special services--from private chefs and drivers to baby-sitters and guides--but chances are you’ll just want to relax in the jewel-box luxury between boutique and museum hopping.

Located at the top of a winding mountain road in lavender country is the chic and storybook-perfect Provencal village of Gordes. The houses of the village cling onto the side of the Vaucluse plateau with spectacular views of the Luberon mountains. Nestled among the rest is La Bastide de Gordes, built into the village’s fortifications, originally laid in the 12th century.

Whereas many properties in the region favor the country inn aesthetic, the 33 rooms and 6 suites of La Bastide de Gordes are decorated in the style of an 18^th-century chateau. With grand staircases, lush fabrics and imposing portraits, the hotel exudes old-world charm that is only surpassed by the views of the mountains and pastures below. (Guests should be sure to request a valley view room.) The town, conveniently located just steps down cobblestone streets from the hotel, is charming with a Renaissance castle and church. The market, open on Tuesday mornings, is filled with local produce, soaps and lavender, and is a lovely way to spend the morning. While in town, be sure to make a visit to the Abbaye Notre-Dame de Sénanque, still inhabited by Cisterian monks who produce lavender essence, honey and liqueurs.

When not wandering through the village, spend a languorous day relaxing by the 80-foot pool set in the garden or enjoying a long lunch out on the terrace. The three-floor Sisley spa has a beautifully lit indoor pool and views of the olive groves.

For families, La Maison de Constance is a charming five-bedroom villa accessible to the property via terraced gardens of lime, almond and fig trees. The home features a private pool and a large fireplace, vaulted ceilings and a full kitchen. With the recent addition of a kids’ club, the hotel is no longer in the couples-only domain, and welcomes families.

The décor is Florentine inspired, and the views of the sea and surrounding countryside are stunning from this height. There are seventy-five rooms and forty suites (ask for one with a terrace or balcony overlooking the sea). After a two-year renovation, the property joined France’s Airelles group, and added an outdoor lap pool and a 10,000-square-foot Valmont Spa. Inside the new wellness sanctuary, guests can enjoy signature massages in any of the nine treatment rooms, as well as a hammam, sauna, indoor pool and infrared therapy.

The huge pool and impressive fitness center and spa may persuade you to remain on-site, but La Messardière also offers twenty-four-hour shuttle service to two of St.-Tropez’s private beaches (Tahiti and Tropezina). Some couples bring children, but the atmosphere is discreet and slightly formal, so don’t be surprised if you find yourself whispering.

This hotel is as cool as Les Airelles is classic. A 31-room, Asian-style hideaway on the Bellecôte piste, it’s sleek, discreet and very comfortable. Le Mélézin proves that the minimalist Aman aesthetic can work in the mountains as well as in the Asian tropics. Aman founder Adrian Zecha skied here for years before he converted this four-story slope-side hotel into one of his company’s properties with the help of American designer Ed Tuttle.

The bar’s huge windows look out onto the slopes, while an inner courtyard made of tinted clapboard offers guests a peaceful refuge. 200-year-old oak beams, red-cedar wood, slate stones, silk chenille panels, leather and suede upholstery and other gorgeous materials outfit common spaces. Asian touches appear in such details as the cylindrical woven baskets in which room service is delivered, and the antique Chinese chair that adorns a corner of the gym. Spacious bedrooms have large walk-in closets, a major plus for those traveling with bulky skiwear, while some of the bathrooms have window-sided hot tubs that look out onto the mountains. The rooms are decorated in the same aesthetic as the hotel - light woods and a zen ambiance, and the Mélézin and La Vanoise suites have fireplaces. The hotel also boasts a two-floor spa with treatment rooms, a fitness studio and indoor pools.

Located across from the majestic 18th century stables originally built for Louis-Henri de Bourbon, the Auberge du Jeu de Paume plays up its historic setting by offering guests a modern-day “royal treatment.” Just twenty-minutes from Paris’s Gare du Nord, Chantilly feels a world away. The hotel’s interior design pays tribute to the Chateau’s treasures with reproductions of paintings and furniture adorning the guestrooms and common areas. (The concierge desk, for example, is modeled after the Duke d’Aumale’s private library.) The guestrooms balance old-style luxury with contemporary comfort. Plush Louis XV-style armchairs and sofas are given modern flair with striped wool upholstering and contrasting throw pillows. Accents like French toile and tasseled sateen drapes offer a taste 18th-century French finery, but not at the cost of feeling like you are staying in a museum. All of the rooms are bright, airy, and comfy—equipped with flat-screen TVs, movies-on-demand, Wifi, and coffee makers. The large bathrooms feature beautiful glass mirrors custom-made in Murano, Carrera marble floors, separate tub and shower, and delectable Hermès products. Highlights of the Auberge Jeu de Paume experience include the hotel’s spa and Michelin-starred restaurant. The spa has five treatment rooms (including one for couples), a small pool with attached Jacuzzi, a steam room and sauna, and a small fitness center. Talented chef Arnaud Faye presides over the open kitchen at Le Table du Connétable, and his gift for unexpected flavor combinations and artistic presentation have made this a destination restaurant. Like the rest of the hotel, the dining room has dramatic flair. The waiters may be dressed in tailcoats and use white gloves to set down gilded silverware, but it’s the culinary creations that steal the show. Indagare Tip: The hotel is just a five-minute walk from the Chateau de Chantilly with its famed art collection and Le Notre-designed gardens.

Set behind plane trees, on the road leading to the village of Lourmarin, La Fenière is run by one of France’s top Michelin-starred chefs: Reine Sammut. The place started as a simple patio restaurant that Sammut launched twelve years ago in a refurbished 19th-century farmhouse. Little did Sammut know that her self-taught cuisine—a creative mix of family recipes from Malta, Tunisia, Sicily and Provence—would catapult her into the limelight. Today La Fenière has evolved into a charming eighteen-room country inn, a gastronomic restaurant and a neo-rustic bistro, La Cour de Ferme, in an enormous barn. There’s also a boutique that specializes in local gourmet products.

The original seven rooms, located in the main house right above the Baroque-meets-Zen dining room, are done in traditional Provencal style. There are eleven more in different sites across the property. The farm’s revamped stables comprises six contemporary Bellevue suites, featuring a flashy color scheme of reds and violets, Pop art and private terraces with a view of the lush hillside vineyards and the Durance river valley. Friends or families seeking privacy, meanwhile, may prefer to book the owners' former private home, a 19th-century, gray-stone granary, tucked behind the olive and fruit tree grove, that has been converted into a comfy four-bedroom annex. It's outfitted with hand-stitched quilts, a plum leather sofa, pistachio walls and a cavernous red-tiled bathroom. The property has a stone pool for swimming.

Among the Auberge’s international clientele, you’ll meet members of the Parisian beau monde such as French fashion and soccer stars, but the atmosphere is friendly and relaxed, thanks to Sammut, whose personality is as radiant as her cuisine. Highlights of the latter include a John Dory carpaccio with local olive oil, roast lamb with spices and pineapple confit with dark chocolate mousse and an exotic raspberry-hibiscus sorbet.

Built in the 18th century, Bastide St. Antoine was the hunting lodge of an English aristocrat who entertained many celebrities here including the Kennedy family. A later owner welcomed the Rolling Stones who spent an entire year on the property. In the late 1990s, renowned French chef Jacques Chibois bought the fifteen-acre estate, which is just outside France’s perfume capital, Grasse, and transformed it into a Relais & Chateaux inn with a Michelin-starred restaurant. The house contains a lovely library and gift shop (with gourmet focus, of course) and nine pretty Provençal-style rooms and seven suites. Rooms are either in a traditional Provencal style with wooden carved furniture, terra cotta floors and quilts or Contemporary, which are a sleeker modern take on the area’s preference for natural materials and a light palette. On the grounds are a pretty pool, rose gardens and a postcard perfect fruit orchard. The setting of the restaurant cannot be beat: set back behind a peaceful century-old olive grove. Michelin one-star chef Jacques Chibois, who is known for his innovative use of Mediterranean olive oil, serves an ever-changing seasonal menu, which might include innovative dishes like truffle ravioli stuffed with scallops and shrimp, roast quail with chestnut truffle purée and a lemon soufflé with a truffle crème brulée.

Note: Truffle lovers should schedule their visit in January when Chibois runs a truffle market.

The Bulgari Hotel Paris’s contemporary design and understated elegance sets it apart in one of the world’s best hotel cities.

This stunning seaside villa sits on a spit of land that juts into the Mediterranean between Nice and Monaco and is ideal for hiding out in splendor.

If you’ve seen To Catch a Thief with Grace Kelly and Cary Grant—perhaps the best movie of all time for French Riviera scenery—you know the Carlton Cannes, reigning over the city’s Mediterranean beachfront promenade, La Croisette.

The hotel, which reopened in spring 2023 following a top-to-bottom restoration, showcases bright, classically-inspired interiors by designer Tristan Auer.

There are 343 guest rooms including 39 suites, which are, for the most part, more modern and airy than you would expect from a grande-dame property and several of the upper-floor rooms have balconies with sweeping sea views. The most spacious accommodations are the rooms in the west wing.

Like the Martinez, the Carlton has a private beach club as well as a fitness center and a fabulous infinity pool, but there is no spa on the premises.

Chateau d’Audrieu became a hotel in 1976, but the building itself dates back at least to the beginning of the 18th century. Legend has it that the Lord of Percy, who originally oversaw the chateau's 30 hectares of land, was also personal chef to William the Conqueror.

The hotel has 29 renovated rooms and suites—27 in the main building and 2 in the small cottage immediately beside the main chateau. The top accommodations are the deluxe rooms in the detached cottages, which are spacious and decorated in subdued colors with large, almost floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the chateau's elegant landscape. The bathrooms are spacious and modern with oversized bathtubs and large rain showers.

The recently renovated 1715 Bar is great for a drink before heading downstairs to the chateau’s gastronomic restaurant, Le Serán, which is part of  Relais & Chateaux. There aren't any restaurants nearby, so guests will be eating most meals on property or can rent a car to dine in Bayeaux.

With multiple gardens and an expansive park, guests at Chateau d’Audrieu will want to spend their time outside. Guests can use one of the complimentary bicycles to ride around the park and into the tiny village of Audrieu. There is also an outdoor pool, a small playground and a tree house, making this an ideal choice for families.