Hotel de Crillon Paris, Rosewood Hotel review

Hotel de Crillon location

You can’t get more central than this. The Hotel de Crillon sits along the northwest corner of the Place de la Concorde, where the Champs-Elysees ends and just before you get to the Tuileries and the Louvre.

Hotel de Crillon booking details

The Hotel de Crillon has a total of 78 rooms, 36 suites and 10 so-called signature suites, which include the “Grands Appartements” designed by the inimitable Karl Lagerfeld (whose photographs are part of the décor) and inspired by Marie Antoinette.

Rates at the Hotel de Crillon currently start at $1,670 per night for Deluxe rooms in the starting category, which are about 340 square feet and face the hotel’s stately inner courtyard.

The Deluxe Suite I was assigned was about 200 square feet larger and starts at around $2,970 per night. You can book directly through Rosewood, though this will not automatically include extras like breakfast.

Standout features

• An impossible-to-beat location in the heart of the city.
• Contemporary touches and comfortable accommodations balance the building’s historical grandeur.
• Bar Les Ambassadeurs is the place to be all evening to take in the scene over creative cocktails and live music.
• The photogenic subterranean pool is a tranquil escape from the busy city streets.

Drawbacks

• If you want a certain table for breakfast in the Jardin d’Hiver or a seat at the bar in the evening, make arrangements well ahead of time since space fills up quickly.
• While the service is mostly warm and wonderful, a few lapses felt unwarranted at a hotel of this caliber.
• The incredibly high price point — not just for accommodations but also at the hotel’s bars, restaurants and spa — put this experience out of reach for most travelers.

The vibe

Welcome to Versailles in the city. Occupying one part of an impressive 18th-century palace along the bustling Place de la Concorde, the Hotel de Crillon feels like a magnificent monument plopped down in the center of Paris. Even Marie Antoinette herself might feel at home having a bath in the regal Arabescato Fantastico deep-veined marble tub in one of the Karl Lagerfeld-designed Grands Appartements (dorky historical footnote: The queen took piano lessons in one of the palace’s salons).

Steal a glimpse of Cleopatra’s needle over your shoulder in the Place de la Concorde as you swan past jauntily kerchiefed doormen. Settle into one of the lobby’s Empire-style sofas beside a rose marble fireplace.

There, you can peruse various art books as you watch visiting magnates and Parisian glitterati drift beneath the ornate gilt and crystal chandeliers from an appointment at Sense, A Rosewood Spa to afternoon tea at Butterfly Patisserie or cocktails at Bar Les Ambassadeurs.

The room

When redesigning the hotel, Paris-based Lebanese architect Aline Asmar d’Amman aimed to give the accommodations a residential feel, like having your own Paris pied-a-terre … that is, if money were no object and you had exquisite taste.

Parting the heavy curtains and throwing open the portes-fenetres of my Deluxe Suite to view the courtyard with its prim garden and the awning-shaded windows of adjacent rooms felt like embarking on my very own unchaperoned Grand Tour. There was even a closet enormous enough for a complete set of steamer trunks.

I considered mixing myself a drink from the antique-style bar cart or the minibar with its silver-and-gold sylvan wallpaper and sinking onto a velvet loveseat. Instead, I dashed off a few notes on provided postcards at the glossy wooden table (OK, yes, and nibbled on some of the pastries that came as part of a welcome amenity).

Stepping into the adjacent bedroom, I noticed the pillowcases had been monogrammed with my initials and briefly considered canceling my evening plans so I could luxuriate in the white-sheeted king-size bed while flipping through some of the art books stowed on the nightstands.

Instead, I took up temporary residence in the all-marble bathroom, sampling the fragrant Officine Universelle Buly products while weighing a bath in the huge soaking tub. I eventually opted for a refreshing rinse in the shower, whose ornate, metal-bordered glass door felt like a baroque picture frame.

I’m sure I left towels (and drips of water) on the floor, sheets askew and a trail of crumbs on my way to dinner. When I returned, my room again looked spotless, thanks to evening turndown service.

Food and drink at Hotel de Crillon

Start your day with petit dejeuner at Jardin d’Hiver, or the winter garden, a light-drenched, lilac-accented parlor just off the lobby. The morning menu includes a Parisian breakfast ($38 per person) of coffee, fresh juices and fruits, and a basket of homemade pastries, including buttery, flakey pain au chocolat. If you don’t get your preferred table in the morning, pass by in the afternoon for tea service, including mouthwatering pastries by chef Matthieu Carlin.

If the forecast is fine, your afternoon should include an alfresco lunch at Comestibles par Paul Pairet in the inner courtyard. The menu includes French and continental classics like steak frites ($32) and a heaping club sandwich ($33) served with salad or french fries.

Reward yourself for an afternoon well spent at the city’s museums (or fashion boutiques) with tea or coffee and treats like Brazilian chocolate-lime eclairs ($17) and a Tahitian vanilla and raspberry millefeuille ($19) at the whimsical Butterfly Patisserie. You can also order a few sweets to go from the pastry counter for later.

After freshening up, it’s time for cocktails at Bar Les Ambassadeurs. Located in a lavish salon near the hotel’s main entrance, with a ceiling frescoed like a stormy sky and crystal chandeliers cheekily draped in metal chains, this is the place to be on a weekday evening thanks to live music with a full band and botanical-inspired cocktails like the Lavender ($34) with Del Maguey mezcal, fino sherry, lavender bitters, honey, citrus and chili; and the Rhubarb ($34) with Michter’s Bourbon, rhubarb bitters and fennel seed soda.

You’ve got a choice to make now. For a casual (if costly) dinner, duck into chef Paul Pairet’s Nonos for contemporary chophouse and brasserie fare like luscious tuna tartare over avocado ($24), onion soup ($20) and various internationally sourced dry-aged beef cuts including an utterly juicy Aubrac wagyu filet mignon ($63) and desserts like mango-licorice sable ($17).

For a splurge, though, make a reservation well in advance for the hotel’s Michelin one-star restaurant, L’Ecrin, in a private dining room off the winter garden. There, chef Boris Campanella creates seasonally changing tasting menus (5 courses for $233 per person; 7 courses for $288) inspired by his upbringing in the lake-dotted, mountainous region of Savoie.

Amenities and service

Stroll through the hotel’s ground floor away from Place de la Concorde, and you’ll eventually reach Sense, A Rosewood Spa.

Here, guests are transported (down one level) to an aquatic-themed retreat with a compact fitness center, men’s and women’s locker rooms and a coed hammam and sauna with Himalayan pink salt walls.

The piece de resistance, however, is the skylit pool, whose aquamarine and gold ceramic walls comprise an installation by artist Peter Lane and where the sumptuous seating areas naturally lend themselves to languid afternoons.

When the time comes, meander along the fish scale-inspired floors to your treatment room for a signature experience like the 90-minute Reverie face and body massage performed with Huages CBD products (90 minutes, $353) or the Sisley phyto-aromatic facial designed to reenergize and sculpt the skin — just what’s needed to fight that jet lag sag (90 minutes, $434). Then schedule a touch-up before your evening event with anything from a blowout to a cut-and-color at the Hair Salon by David Lucas.

Souvenir is a French word, so it would only be fitting to pick up a few of them as memories of your stay from the hotel’s boutique, located near Butterfly Patisserie and adjacent to the concierge section of the lobby. Stock up on models of classic French cars, Buly skincare products, or even the bespoke, side-lying wine glasses used at L’Ecrin.

The staff can be counted upon to know you by name after a day or so — you won’t even have to introduce yourself when checking in for a dinner reservation or breakfast in the morning. Likewise, housekeeping will leave you little presents like a bookmark or a handy tie to wrangle your computer cords.

That said, no hotel stay is perfect. During busy times, you might find your room skipped for turndown service, or all the bellmen are otherwise occupied when you arrive, so you might not have help with your bags or finding the tucked-away reception area. Ask for help, though, and it will arrive in no time.

Out and about

The Hotel de Crillon is close to some of the city’s most fabulous shopping streets and some of Paris’s most beloved museums. You merely need to stroll across Place de la Concorde to arrive at the Tuileries, where you can wend your way beneath the trees and past the fountains to the Louvre, then beyond to Notre Dame and a well-deserved sorbet on Ile St. Louis.

In the other direction, you can brave the tourist masses along the Champs-Elysees or cross the Seine to visit Les Invalides to the west or the Musee d’Orsay to the east. Seeing a show at the Opera Garnier? That’s just a short walk to the northeast of the hotel. Thanks to its central location and the fact that it’s a block from the Concorde station, the city is within easy reach with a Metro ticket.

Accessibility

The Hotel de Crillon has four wheelchair-accessible Premier rooms with wide doorways and spaces for navigating in a mobility device and roll-in showers and grab bars by the toilets. Guests with hearing and sight impairments can request devices such as visual alarms from reception. As always, however, it is recommended to call the hotel directly ahead of time to ensure your accommodations and any aids you request will be available.

The hotel’s entrance and some public areas are accessible to wheelchair users, as are guest room floors and the spa and pool level, thanks to elevators with wheelchair-height buttons (though there are some doors to navigate and no chair lift for the pool).

The Winter Garden and Bar Les Ambassadeurs require guests to use small flights of stairs, as does the entrance to L’Ecrin, meaning guests with limited mobility might have difficulty getting to those venues.

Checking out

Historic yet hip, grand yet cozy, timeless yet chic and utterly French yet unmistakably international … the Hotel de Crillon is like a microcosm of Paris.

After its relatively recent rebirth as a Rosewood hotel, the Hotel de Crillon is just as stunning as ever and even more inviting, thanks to its many amenities (including what might be Paris’ best hotel bar) and elegant accommodations (including some of Paris’ most singular specialty suites).

Whether this is your first time in Paris or your hundredth, staying at the Hotel de Crillon will likely cast the City of Light in a new light and provide novel dimensions of the French capital for you to explore.

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