HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: LA RÉSERVE PARIS
France
Tucked in a tree-lined street behind the Jardin des Champs-Élysées in the eighth arrondissement, La Réserve is easy to miss. Were it not for the crimson velvet drapes over its doorway, you would never know this stately mansion from the 1850s houses a 40-room hotel and a two-Michelin-starred restaurant.
Forty rooms, 26 of them suites, is about as small as a Parisian luxury hotel gets. Most of the city’s properties are either sprawling complexes or cramped boutiques; the former afford little privacy, and the latter deprive you of space. But La Réserve, which was once the residence of designer Pierre Cardin, retains the atmosphere of an elegant home. Spacious suites feature new silk-damask wallpaper and herringbone parquet floors that nod to the history of the property—and complement the restored 19th-century details in the common areas, such as marble fireplaces and gilded mirrors.
Unlike many Paris hotels, this is a property that reserves much of its space exclusively for guests: the spa with an indoor swimming pool, the cigar lounge with an outdoor terrace and the Duc de Morny Library. Named after the building’s original owner, the library is an extravagant celebration of literature containing more than 3,000 antique books, where you can share a drink, have tea, maybe even work on a novel. In the evening, it transforms into an intimate jazz lounge where you can continue to revel in old Parisian glamour.
Starting rate: $1,316 per night
Contact: Mathilde Rizza, VIP reservations, [email protected], lareserve-paris.com
