Paris is spoilt for choice when it comes to hotels that double as the perfect setting for one’s very own love story — from swoon-worthy five-star establishments to boutique addresses that are heart-palpitatingly pretty.
Some hotels, however, have such a romantic air about them that they seem to come straight from rom-com central casting. Here are six of the most seductive …
Hôtel Amour
Inspired by Japanese love hotels, Amour’s rooms are small and uniquely decorated, with styling ranging from the playful to the risqué. With the black-carpeted corridors, jazz soundtrack, and eclectic vintage furniture, it has a Serge & Jane vibe to it, especially when the ground-floor brasserie fills up at night. For romantic daytime wanderings, Montmartre is just up the hill, and the endearing Musée de la Vie Romantique — one-time haunt of lovers George Sand and Frédéric Chopin — is a couple of blocks away.
8 Rue de Navarin, 75009. For more information, click here.
Maison Souquet
Also in the ninth arrondissement, just south of Moulin Rouge, Maison Souquet has lots of fun playing up to its past life as a Belle Époque brothel. Celebrated interior designer Jacques Garcia has created a portal into another, more exotic, world, with an intoxicating blend of Arabian, Oriental, and French inspirations throughout the gilded lobby and velvety bar (above). In the treasure chests that are the rooms, velvet and damask in jewel-coloured tones meet gilded and jet detailing for a heady effect. Each room is named for a famed Parisian courtesan of history, and it’s not hard to imagine a grande horizontale lazing about these luxurious beds and sofas.
10 Rue de Bruzelles, 75009. For more information, click here.
Hôtel Particulier
This utterly charming hotel is only a little further uphill from Maison Souquet and Hôtel Amour, but checking in here is to feel as though you’ve run off for a romantic weekend away. Recalling the days of Montmartre as a bucolic village beyond the borders of Paris, the one-time townhouse, located down a cobblestone lane, is nestled within a delight of a garden that serves as the ultimate setting for afternoon tea and apéro hour. There’s also a luxurious restaurant — all mirrored and velvety — and a picturesque winter garden-style bar. That’s if you want to leave your room at all — there are five suites, one luxury suite, and one prestige suite (with a glass roof displaying a view that stretches to the Eiffel Tower), and all rooms have been individually, and lavishly, decorated, whether with rose-adorned ceiling tiles, leopard-print wallpaper, or trellis and trompe l’œil for an exotic-holiday feel.
23 Avenue Junot, 75018. For more information, click here.
Maison Proust
For lovers of old-fashioned glamour, Maison Proust recreates the lush world of Marcel Proust’s Belle Époque, and its sumptuous salons and boudoirs. Another glorious vision from Jacques Garcia, dark wood-panelled walls, midnight-blue tasselled curtains, golden candelabra lighting, and rose-scented air make for an intimate and romantic ambience. And that’s even before you get to your room — the ground floor is especially gorgeous, with its series of cosy, inviting spaces, such as a circular library topped with a star-sparkled dome, and an opulent bar, presided over by the legendary Colin Field, who left his plum job at the Ritz’s Bar Hemingway for Maison Proust. So the cocktails are as sublime as you’d expect, and the ‘Delicacies’ menu includes treats such as black truffle tarama toasts, salmon roe blinis, artichoke hearts, a cheese plate, tarte tatin, and chocolate cake.
23 Rue de Picardie, 75003. For more information, click here.
Hôtel Raphaël
Audrey Hepburn’s preferred home away from home, Hôtel Raphaël is as romantic as it is elegant. It would be the perfect hotel for one of Audrey’s Paris movies, too, for it’s pitch-perfect in style, managing to appear light and airy, while serving up a satisfying amount of velvet and gilt. There’s a plush ground-floor bar that’s ideal for romantic tête-à-têtes, and also a showstopper of a roof terrace (open during warmer months) where you can dine or drink while gazing out adoringly at the city’s monuments. Or, stroll arm-in-arm down Avenue Kléber and watch the Eiffel Tower sparkle from Place de Trocadéro.
17 Avenue Kléber, 75116. For more information, click here.
L’Hôtel
Oscar Wilde might have famously passed away here in poverty — quipping ‘My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One or the other of us has to go.’ — but L’Hôtel these days is a decidedly more life-affirming place. Not to mention one that’s conducive to love, too. The interiors are dramatic and decadent, almost theatrical in effect (Mr Wilde would have been much more at home this time around): there’s a spectacular circular atrium and spiralling leopard-print staircase, a glorious bar that’s the love child of a gentleman’s club and pleasure house, and rooms fashioned as extravagantly as stage-set boudoirs. (You won’t be surprised to hear this hotel’s renovation was another of Jacques Garcia’s projects.) There’s also a fabulous subterranean pool that can be booked out for couples time, complete with candles and rose petals.
13 Rue des Beaux Arts, 75006. For more information, click here.