The Ritz Paris
Paris, France
The hotel that taught the world what luxury looks like.
When César Ritz opened his hotel in 1898, he invented much of what we now take for granted. The ensuite bathroom. A telephone in every room. The idea that a hotel could be a stage as much as a shelter. More than a century later, the Ritz is still writing that script.
The restoration that ran from 2012 to 2016 was so thorough that the hotel effectively closed and rebuilt itself behind its Louis XVI façade. What came back isn't a museum. It's softer, brighter and far more comfortable than the grande dame it replaced.
The Rooms
The Coco Chanel Suite, where the designer lived for 34 years, is the one everyone asks for. But even the standard rooms speak fluent Ritz: swagged curtains, marble bathrooms, and hand-embroidered linen turned down each night beside a Ritz-blue box of chocolates.
The real showpiece is the Grand Jardin, a private courtyard garden where breakfast in warm weather feels borrowed from a film.
The Verdict
Some hotels chase the future. The Ritz Paris perfects the past. If you want to understand where the whole idea of the luxury hotel came from, you stay here, and you stay at least two nights.
A negroni at Bar Hemingway, where Colin Field still mixes the best martini in Europe under a ceiling of framed photographs.
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