Ritz Paris

The Ritz opened at 15 Place Vendôme on 1 June 1898 — César Ritz had spent five years restoring the 18th-century Hôtel de Lauzun on the square, with Auguste Escoffier installed as chef and the first hotel ensuite bathrooms and electric lighting in Paris. The building closed in 2012 for a four-year, €400m restoration by Thierry Despont; it reopened on 6 June 2016 with every room re-plumbed, the 18th-century facades cleaned to original Tuffeau stone, and the basement excavated to create the 800-square-metre Ritz Club spa and 17-metre pool — the largest palace pool in central Paris.

The hotel's strongest defining features survive the renovation intact: the Coco Chanel Suite on the third floor remains decorated in the style she lived in from 1937 until her death in 1971 and books at €23,000 per night; Bar Hemingway holds the original mahogany counter where the writer drank during and after the Liberation; L'Espadon has the only dining-room ceiling fresco of any Paris palace, painted in 1898 by Théobald Chartran. The kitchen dropped from two Michelin stars to one in the 2024 guide — read this as a quality plateau, not a collapse. Book via the hotel's Ritz Privé programme or Amex FHR for breakfast and €100 F&B credit at the standard nightly rate.