With designer showcases soon to take over the city, we suggest one stylish new stay to book in town, plus three scenic retreats for unplugging once it's all done.
With designer showcases soon to take over the city, we suggest one stylish new stay to book in town, plus three scenic retreats for unplugging once it's all done.
The Space: Inside two conjoined Haussmannian buildings, Israeli designer Raphael Navot selected bâtons rompus parquet floors and Moroso furniture for all 70 individually designed rooms. In the much-lauded Ristorante National Cucina Italiana, vintage Tatra chairs and washed-velvet sofas meet timber tabletops.
Location: Straddling two of Paris’s of-the-moment neighborhoods on the Right Bank, Montorgueil and Le Haut Marais, alongside the Centre National des Arts & Métiers, a century-old engineering and manufacturing institute.
Highlight: A boldface name in the European nightlife scene, head bartender Oscar Quagliarini spent six years studying the history of perfume before deciding on the 52 herbs, flowers, and spices he shakes into his olfactory-driven cocktails.
Nearby: Though many traditional French métiers have died out, meander deeper into the Marais, where Vivienne Westwood alum Zoe Lee makes her own heels on a lathe for her masterfully crafted shoes and boots.
The Space: Paris-based studio Jouin Manku sourced local oak, stone, and concrete for the extension of the three-Michelin-starred L’Auberge de l’Ill and its original eight-room inn. The new gracefully deconstructed barn features a pitched roof referencing Alsatian construction, yet its interiors are solidly modern, down to Patrick Jouin’s multifunctional furniture in all five timber-clad suites.
Location: In Illhaeusern, a bucolic village in Alsace-Lorraine, at France’s northeastern extreme, where the Rhine River serves as the country’s border with Germany.
Highlight: The cathedral-like Spa de Saules, which offers organic treatments incorporating oils made from weeping willows and indoor-outdoor mineral pools.
Nearby: Take a pilgrimage an hour and a half southwest to Ronchamp, where Le Corbusier took inspiration from a seashell to design the chapel of Notre Dame du Haut.
The Space: Within a UNESCO World Heritage site, Jean-Michel Wilmotte’s opaque glass-and-concrete architecture pays homage to its Roman surroundings. Inside, Jacques Grange realized the sophisticated interiors with Japanese straw-lined walls, mouth-blown glass by La Verrerie de Saint-Just, and photographic artwork by Charles Maze. Jardin des Tuileries green thumb Louis Benech planted the Garden of Contemplation, and also created the toiletries infused with iris, aniseed, and bitter almond for the 37 rooms.
Location: Surrounded by the French Alps and the Saône and Rhône rivers on Lyon’s Fourvière Hill, originally settled by the Romans around 43 B.C. and one of Europe’s most intact Renaissance neighborhoods.
Highlight: Chef Christian Têtedoie’s Michelin-starred restaurant, known for modern French cuisine and regional Rhônes and Burgundies. Drop by the bar, where guests sip almond cocktails on lime- and forest-green sofas with British artist Peter Gee’s pop art in the background.
Nearby: The Nights of Fourvière Festival holds multidisciplinary art performances around the corner from Villa Maïa at a Roman amphitheater, which dates back to 15 B.C.
The Space: French hotel revivalist Valéry Grégo found his most seductive gem yet in this midcentury property on the French Riviera. Paris architecture firm Festen stripped away outdated ornamentation and bad renovations in favor of broad windows, clean lines, and opus incertum stonework. Airy, bleached-white guest sanctuaries get sparingly embellished with vintage furniture, French linen, and Céramiques du Beaujolais pottery.
Location: In a natural reserve between Cannes and St.-Tropez, with les pieds dans l’eau (“feet in the water”), a reference to its rare positioning directly atop the waterside rocks.
Highlight: Carved directly into the coastal rock, the new natural seawater pool and lap lane appear as if ripped from the pages of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night.
Nearby: The hotel sources sea bream, swordfish, and lobster directly from local fishermen, but French spearfishing champion Olivier Bardoux also takes guests on his boat up the southern coast to the astonishingly clear waters of Cap du Dramont for hand-line fishing.
