The best hotels with a view in Paris
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From its ubiquitous chimney pots to its iconic architectural design, the rooftops of Paris are as romantic as the city’s well-trodden streets. With views in every direction of monuments and museums such as the Seine, the Eiffel Tower, Les Invalides and the Sacré-Coeur, plus a birds-eye view of some of Europe’s most stylish people, a room with a view is a worthy indulgence in this poetic city of lights, love, landmarks and la belle vie. Here are some of the loveliest hotels with views in Paris.
VRX StudiosShangri-La Paris
There are views of the Eiffel Tower, and then there’s the sight that awaits beyond the thick swathes of curtain at Shangri-La Paris – the famous monument is practically peering through your window. The rest of the hotel is not too shabby either. Smack bang in the centre of the well-heeled 16th arrondissement, the group’s first European outpost sits inside a 120-year-old former palace once home to Prince Bonaparte himself. Inside is befittingly swish, an eclectic blend of Chinese and 19th-century regency style providing much pomp and fanfare – indeed, a meticulous 2009 renovation saw the palace earn Historical Monument status. The creamy-hued lobby, original floors intact, is awash with gilded sconces, statues and several hefty oriental vases, nodding to the brand’s Asian roots. Bedrooms are huge, outfitted in blue and gold with full-width tufted headboards, walk-in wardrobes and lavish marble bathrooms. Each of the 100 rooms is unique, with a mix of Regency-style rooms – some with mezzanines and separate lounges – through to ultra-grand suites with balconies (many a proposal has been carried out here against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower).
This hotel is also home to France’s only Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant, Shang Palace. Naturally, it is the buzzier of its two restaurants, but do book in at pretty European eaterie La Bauhinia too – a sheer floral dream in red and green tones, a shiny glass atrium roof and a colossal glittering chandelier. On sunny days the bistro doors open onto the “secret” garden, where chic Parisians chat over marinated slivers of sea bass and honey soy-drizzled prawns. The citrus-scented spa has a comprehensive treatment menu and a powerful steam room, but the pool is the star. Glazed doors open right onto the lawn, spilling dappled light onto the water. Note that not all rooms have Eiffel Tower views. In fact, the most lavish suite – Bonaparte’s bombastic former chambers, no less – is on the other side of the hotel. Once upon a time, the area where the tower now sits was considered the wrong side of the tracks, so anyone who was anyone stayed on the adjoining street. But that’s all in the past. For those seeking the chance to watch the Tower’s famous twinkly light show up close from the comfort of bed, the windowsill, or even the bath, there’s no better spot in Paris. Charley Ward
Ludovic BalayhotelHôtel Dame des Arts, 5th arrondissement
The 360-degree views from the rooftop bar alone are a reason to book. On a clear day, you can see practically the entire city. If your faith in Paris is flagging – which does happen but seldom lasts – a visit to the rooftop of Hôtel Dame des Arts will restore it. When this reviewer described the stupendous panorama to a Paris-born-and-bred friend, she sighed and said simply: “Oui. I sometimes think about leaving Paris, but the thing that prevents me is the rooftops.” Of the 109 rooms, the higher up you are, the better the views get – or rather the bigger they get. Ask for a room on the sixth, seventh or eighth floor, on the Rue Suger side, with a terrace.
There’s charm in all directions though, à tous les étages. Style-wise, rooms are similarly got-up in a way that is at once spartan and spoiling, chic and subdued. (This applies even in the littlest rooms, which are indeed little). There are deft touches everywhere – the bedside tables with tops as rich and glossy as a crème caramel; the autumnal tones of the curtains; the contoured eau-de-nil tiles in the bathrooms; the ongoing juxtaposition of straight and curved lines that you find throughout the hotel. All very coherent and discreetly sensuous. Steve King
hotelLe Meurice, 1st arrondissement
Paris’ first ‘palace-status hotel’, Le Meurice is a gilded city spin on Versailles – an ornate refuge from the rue Rivoli crowds with a rich history that gives its grandiose neighbours, Le Crillon and the Ritz, a run for their money. The hotel’s splendid Haussmann façade looks out across the Tuileries gardens, with a sweeping panoramic view from the Louvre to the Eiffel Tower, and a bejewelled Louis XIV wall peacock inside. It’s the communal ground-floor spaces especially that ooze Imperial French splendour with impossibly high ceilings, original cornicing and mosaic floors – the perfect canvas for Philippe Starck’s fabulously jarring modernity (note his daughter, Ara Starck's Dalí-inspired sweeping ceiling art in the Restaurant Le Dalí and his transparent plastic chairs spread across the decadent Restaurant Le Meurice Alain Ducasse).
Le Meurice’s rooms and suites vary in size and grandeur – all echoing to some degree the 18th-century spirit governing the ground floor. We stayed in one of the sixth-floor suites, refurbished by young designers Margaux Lally and Luc Berger of Lally & Berger. They created a watered-down Versailles for more modern taste buds: duck-egg cupboards, faintly regal shutters, and Missoni-style chairs. A lofty level of tech is subtly woven into this picture: a brass touch lamp, soundproof French balcony doors, and a mini-bar cloaked in wood panelling. The rooms provide enough Parisian romance without frilly overkill. Roselyn Wikeley
CastroHotel du Sentier, 2nd arrondissement
Despite opening just 10 months after the first lockdown in January 2021, this 30-room, six-floor stunner in the 2nd arrondissement was fully booked. Not with tourists – most foreigners were still forbidden – but with local Parisians looking to escape their own boxed-in bedrooms or to co-work with friends. (The hotel introduced a day-rate option during the pandemic that took off.) For first-time hotel owners and couple Charlotte and Samuel Castro, this meant they’d achieved their goal of becoming a sociable space that also feels like one’s own home – an astutely designed one at that. Many of the rooms feature custom-made, jewel-tone floor tiles in the bathrooms and exquisite windows that let in the most luminous afternoon light. Overhauling the property, which features an Egyptian facade dating back to 1798 that’s also a historic monument, wasn’t easy for architect Vincent Bestie. Challenges included framing, ledges, and the fact that the building also straddles a centuries-old covered arcade. But the 18-month effort paid off. While some rooms, like the top-floor suite with its wrought-iron spiral staircase leading to a private, plant adorned balcony, overlook the Passage du Caire where local garment workers can be seen rolling trollies of textiles during the day; front-facing rooms offer views of the hotel’s convivial Place du Caire, a pedestrian-only triangle that boasts benches and is surrounded by shops and cafés.
The hotel’s ace location is not only walking distance to popular sites such as the Louvre, Opera Garnier, and the Bourse de Commerce Pinault Collection, but also near some of Paris’s tastiest restaurants (see: Frenchie, La Poule au Pot, and Shabour). And for visitors who don’t feel like dining out, it’s an easy stroll to Rue de Montorgueil where ginger cookies from Stohrer and chocolate ‘orangettes’ from À la Mère de Famille, can be taken back to the room since many are outfitted with a small round bistro table and quintessentially-French rattan café chairs. What a noble concept: to feel like you’re dining outside in Paris while being inside in Paris at a space that feels like chez toi. By Sara Lieberman
Hotel Lutetia, 6th arrondissement
When Hotel Lutetia first threw open its doors in 1910, it was deemed very much ahead of the curve. A fusion of Art Nouveau and Art Deco architecture, it was the first true luxury hotel on the Left Bank – and to this day it remains the only Palace Hotel to grace this side of town. Camus and Sartre came to ponder existentialism in its grand salons; Matisse and Picasso took up residence in the suites and Josephine Baker’s performances in the bar helped sweep Paris into the Jazz Age. In short, it perfectly captured the artistic zeitgeist of the time. And despite the fact that it has changed hands countless times over the decades, no overhaul of the hotel has been as extreme – or impressive – as the latest one. Overseen by The Set hotel group (of London’s Hotel Café Royal and the Conservatorium in Amsterdam), a four-year overhaul stripped back layers of plaster to reveal original frescoes, opened up gloomy internal courtyards to flood the place with light and slashed the number of bedrooms to create a luxury so often absent in Parisian hotels: space.
Downstairs, public areas shine in marble and brass; there’s a hushed spa with a pool actually big enough to swim in; and there are six restaurants and bars – the flagship, Brasserie Lutetia, is overseen by renowned chef Patrick Charvet. In the bedrooms, hand-blown Murano glass lamps light up tactile wooden panelling painted midnight blue, while baths are carved from two-ton slabs of Carrara marble (ceilings had to be reinforced to take the weight). And at the end of 2018, the final touch was unveiled; a handful of signature suites designed to pay homage to the hotel’s artistic spirit. Fitted out with artworks and antiques supplied by Paris’s most prestigious club of art dealers and collectors, the Carré Rive Gauche suite is more akin to a private museum (and it’s all for sale). The Francis Ford Coppola suite, meanwhile, is a utopia for film buffs. This is the star director's private home in the city, and he's filled it with stills, photographs and movie memorabilia from his own collection. His vintage Éclair camera sits on one cabinet, his original annotated copy of The Godfather on another. But the best bit is the terrace – hidden above a slither of retractable-glass roof – which has exactly the type of knockout cinematic views people come to Paris for. By Teddy Wolstenholme
Nicolas AnetsonChouchou Hotel, 9th arrondissement
Some hotels clearly set out to be places in which to gather as much as to sleep. At the Opera district’s new Chouchou hotel, it’s possible to miss the entrance entirely, drawn instead into Le Marché, a food market which doubles as a venue for DJs, live music and stand-up. On this visit, the space is buzzing with young Parisians packed onto trestle tables, ordering cheese and charcuterie plates or oysters for a euro a go from mock stalls with striped awnings. This is the 19th hotel from the Elegancia group, the brand behind smart addresses such as the Left Bank’s floral-chic Hôtel des Grandes Ecoles and the sultry black Hotel Snob in Les Halles. But never has an outpost been so squarely aimed at locals as well as visitors.
This is Paris, though, so the 63 reasonably priced bedrooms remain eminently grown-up: in L’Arrache Coeur (The Heartsnatcher) suite, named after the Boris Vian novel, there are blue-panelled walls, a forest-green sofa against a bookshelf wall (lots of Vian) and jazz LPs for the Grundig vinyl player. Slightly smaller junior suites are named after classic French songs, such as the pastel-pink La Vie En Rose, with views across copper chimney pots to the Palais Garnier opera house. Downstairs, the continental breakfasts are unfussily satisfying, though it’s worth saving room to join the queue later at nearby patisserie Cédric Grolet, where the croissants are famous. This needn’t feel sacrilegious: Chouchou isn’t a place to be sequestered away from the city, but a place to be plugged into its rhythms. By Tabitha Joyce
Cerruti DraimeHotel Le Wallace, 15th arrondissement
Despite being within eyeshot of the Eiffel Tower and the gilded dome of Napoleon’s tomb, the 15th arrondissement in western Paris has always felt more like a neighbourhood than a destination per se. For the Wallace’s owners, Louis and Anouk Solanet, that was part of the charm when they gave a coolly retro makeover to a derelict building which locals might vaguely recall was once a low-cost hotel. Now, it feels like the heart of a quietly hip village, in an area of little boutiques and specialist food stores. The Solanets maintained the original structure but added several floors and a leafy terrace accessible from the third floor, with a Nordic bath, outdoor sauna and classic view of Parisian rooftops.
Among the 45 bedrooms, several on the first few floors have more of a motel vibe – small but comfortable, with windows looking onto an interior glass roof. The others, including the top-floor junior suite with a sizeable double balcony dotted with deckchairs and bedroom skylight, evoke the elegance of an Orient Express-style night car. Headboards and shelves are sleek, in lacquered and varnished wood, while brass reading lamps, fringed light fixtures and Kartell nightstands add to the retro vibe. Striped coral-and-white curtains lend a hint of Riviera colour, while the terrazzo floors and bathroom countertops are signatures of the interior designers, French-Italian duo Samantha Hauvette and Lucas Madani. There’s no on-site restaurant, but the glass-covered cocktail bar has a menu of local nibbles selected by the team at cult rotating-chef restaurant Fulgurances. By Lindsey Tramuta
Hôtel Adèle & Jules, 9th arrondissement
Adèle and Jules are two halves of a single charming hotel or, technically, two hotels in one block. Reserved romantics will appreciate its low-hype offering – 30 varied bedrooms in each of the buildings, a Taittinger-led honesty bar in Adèle and a superb welcome with a proper concierge service. This is combined with a tucked-away location in a newly but not aggressively trendified slice of the 9th, close to rue des Martyrs (food shopping), Grands Boulevards (nightlife) and the Gare du Nord. Designer Stéphane Poux's style is a deliberate mishmash of urbanity and generous homeliness, his eye travelling around ikat prints, Indian cotton quilts and witty, intriguing artworks. Club rooms have balconies big enough for prolonged nightcaps, a bathtub and twin basins.
If you get a view – say of the landmark BNP Paribas building or Grand Rex cinema – the smaller deluxe rooms are charming too. Breakfast features eggs, sausages and mini viennoiseries, and between 4pm and 6pm there's a pick-me-up of Dammann Frères tea, cakes, pastries and fruit. This takes place in a cosy living/breakfast room lined with decent reading material: not just the usual glossies, but also shelves of Folio paperbacks. The no-restaurant issue is very much a non-issue, with local options including Abri, Vivant and Richer. A sibling to long-time fashion-pack bolthole Hôtel Thérèse in the 1st and Hôtel Recamier in Saint-Germain, this civilised, chic four-star deserves to become a cult hero/heroine as well. By Sophie Dening
Jérôme MondièreLa Demeure Montaigne, 8th arrondissement
Best for: Chic whimsy
It takes a certain level of confidence to arrive in Paris’s Golden Triangle, among the Chanel boutiques and urban palaces such as the Four Seasons and Hôtel Plaza Athénée. La Demeure Montaigne – a newcomer from the Frontenac Group that has three hotels nearby – does so with sly whimsy. There are feather-flower chandeliers, jungle wallpaper and ginkgo-patterned carpets throughout the 93-bedroom address. Soft jazz and the delicate scent of powder filters up from the subterranean spa – a future-forward draw, with its quartz-walled pool, hot baths, steam room and cabins with heated tables for massages using marine-based Thalgo products. Back upstairs, a Carrara marble hall leads to a stately billiards room that exudes cosy chic, with its fireplace, circular granite bar and Pop Art portrait of French philosopher Michel de Montaigne.
The restaurant, L’Envolée (‘Flight’), is in a dramatic glass atrium, above which soars a bird mobile by sculptor François Lavrat – a sort of metaphorical challenge to chef Grégory Réjou, who sharpened his knives alongside Alain Sanderens at the nearby Plaza Athénée; for dessert try the candied clementine and poached pear with tonka-bean cream. For all the sense of a hush-hush retreat, there are landmark views – in apartment 605 and suite 608, king-sized beds face wrought-iron balconies with views of the Eiffel Tower. There’s a floral femininity to most rooms, with reliefs of birds and fauna, and TVs are discreetly positioned behind dressers or ornate wall mirrors – all of which suits the overriding feeling of discovering a hidden treasure. By Sara Lieberman
Hotel Grand Powers, 1st arrondissement
The Grand Powers, in the 1st arrondissement behind the Champs-Élysées, does have a certain grandeur – it’s been a hotel in Paris since 1920 and is a stalwart of the city’s scene. Thanks to the building’s corner spot, there are views of the Eiffel Tower just poking above the romantic rooftops from almost half of the rooms.. And there are balconies too, meaning that the bedrooms are lighter, as well as much bigger, than the majority of boutique hotel rooms in the city. Deep red clashes with pale pink; dark teal with spearmint cream; and gilded mirrors complement plush velvets and scrawling florals.
A member of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World group, the Grand Powers feels cosy, and the staff are exceptionally helpful and delightfully jolly, while not being too much. At breakfast there are just-baked madeleines as well as eggs made to order – the boiled ones come shell-less in silver egg cups with Jenga-style soldiers. But there are also detox juices with beetroot and ginger and sushi-grade salmon in thick slices. This hotel provides quiet respite from the busy shopping district – so much so, you wouldn’t know the Arc de Triomphe was just a 10 minute stroll away. By Tabitha Joyce
Guillaume de LaubierCour des Vosges, 4th arrondissement
On the oldest square in Paris with its Louis XIII architecture, blush-pink buildings and primped and preened gardens sits a heavy, nondescript door, wedged between a traditional brasserie and a new-age patisserie. This swings into the quiet, cobbled courtyard belonging to Cour des Vosges, a 17th-century mansion that’s a refuge for the cultured polymath with its evocative interiors, a subterranean Roman bath and views across the square. A fictional family art collection is rolled out across the four floors and all the rooms are different. One top-floor room has a bath with a glass-wall view, but it’s the first-floor rooms – traditionally where Parisian nobility would lay their heads – that are the real show-offs, with original wooden beams, terracotta floors covered in baby-blue rugs and clay-coloured, unpainted walls dressed in tapestries and modern art. In one, a steel spin on the four-poster is immense, swallowing most of the room and shutting out the neighbouring retro furniture with futuristic sliding doors.
While there’s no restaurant, you’ll find Pâtisserie Brach on the ground floor – a tearoom peacocking feted patissier Yann Brys’ pastries. Breakfast is the headline performance when it comes to food, served in your room with a cavalcade of silverware, cold-pressed juices, pastries, yogurts and organic eggs – to which black truffle and caviar can be added. As for the crowd: elusive movers and shakers who wish to be left alone in the company of Voltaire and de Beauvoir, until another glass of Burgundy is called for. By Rosalyn Wikeley.
Read the full Cour des Vosges hotel review.
Hôtel 9Confidentiel, 3rd arrondissement
Philippe Starck has done it again, and this time he’s brought a flirty Art Deco hotel to the lower Marais. With falafel-favourite Miznon just to the east and French fashion brands The Kooples, Maje and Sandro to the west, this petite mirror-glazed gem is a very affordable and comfortable hideaway with a funky feel to boot. There isn’t a traditional lobby here – blink and you’ll miss the entrance – but, nonetheless, it feels straight out of Twenties Paris, with its dusty-pink and yellow walls, diamond-shaped rugs and geometric-print cushions.
Each of the 29 rooms is named after a mademoiselle of the time and has a picture-postcard view of Parisian rooftops and enormous fluffy beds – a welcome retreat for an evening of wine and steak frites. Nicolas de Soto (formerly of Experimental Cocktail Club) is behind the bar, and while the drinks are worth stopping by for, people might not spot it when walking past. Baskets of mini croissants are laid out for breakfast – but we’d suggest heading over to Parisian favourite Circus, on the Left Bank, for their fresh-from-the-oven cinnamon rolls and frothy cappuccinos. By Katharine Sohn
Kristen PelouGrand Pigalle Hotel, 9th arrondissement
With its creamy stone façade and slate-grey bar and restaurant, this freshly restored hotel is a real standout among its well-worn neighbours on a lively street in trendy SoPi (South Pigalle). It was conceived by the innovative Experimental Group – three childhood pals who founded the Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels and a flurry of Experimental Cocktail Clubs – as a 'Bed & Beverage' hotel. Here, the cocktail is gleefully celebrated, from the gold pineapple ornaments on the doors and the carpets patterned with Martini glasses right down to the bathrooms stocked with Cognac-scented products packaged in mini liquor bottles. Designed by Dorothée Meilichzon, the rooms are uncluttered, with vintage-style furniture, faux fireplaces, original pressed ceilings and colourful tiled bathrooms; mini-bars are well stocked with craft beers and pre-mixed Negronis for that one last nightcap.
Book a garret-style room under the eaves on the top floor for the consummate bohemian experience and sweeping views across Montmartre. There's no need to venture far for sustenance: the restaurant serves delicious bistro food (sea-bass carpaccio with yuzu; Basque-inspired cheeseburgers with chorizo) and has an impressive wine menu (200 varieties and counting). The buffet breakfast is a riot of homemade breads, jams and cakes, laid out prettily on the zinc bar. By Lanie Goodman