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Le Bristol, one of the most famous five stars in Paris, was founded in 1925 by a certain Hippolyte Jammet, grandson of Parisian restaurateurs.

Whether or not Jammet was related to Michel and François Jammet, founders of Dublin’s legendary restaurant Jammet’s, is not known, but he was clearly a man of vision. The palace was once the home of the Comte de Castellane, and Jammet managed to turn it into one of the most glamorous hotels in the French capital. Since then, he’s seen a succession of celebrity guests. American dancer and entertainer Josephine Baker was a regular visitor; Shortly before she died in 1975, she hosted a party at the hotel for 250 of her closest friends, including Princess Grace, Sophia Loren and Mick Jagger.

Recent arrivals have included George Clooney, Julia Roberts and David Beckham, and earlier this month, during Paris Fashion Week, Le Bristol was packed with fashionistas; including actress and model Lily Collins, who thanked the hotel on Instagram (where she has 28.5 million followers) for allowing her to “channel the Eloise within her.”

Arrival and location

Located in the upscale 8th arrondissement, a €41 taxi ride from Orly, Le Bristol is close enough to the Élysée Palace to be a favorite haunt of France’s ruling elite, the Sciences Po Alumni who run the country. Surrounded by small private galleries where you’re likely to see works by the likes of Picasso and Morisot hanging almost casually in the window, the hotel is also a stone’s throw from Hermes, Lanvin, Prada, and Chanel boutiques.

Returning to Le Bristol after a night of browsing the wine bars of Paris, we were surprised to find a line of beautiful young men, all smoking of course, trying to get the attention of the bouncers. Across the street a gang of paparazzi was huddled. What the hell was going on?

As it turns out, since its reinvention last year by clubmaster Loic Berardengo, Le Bristol’s purple-lit bar—Le Bristol After Dark, or BAD—is one of the city’s hottest nightspots, offering a return to the golden era of parties for which the hotel was known in the 1920s.

Top model Cindy Bruna recently celebrated her birthday on BAD; Her guests included Kylian Mbappé, Precious Lee and Imaan Hammam. 9/10

service and style

The staff are friendly and relaxed, and a quick tour includes the huge Arabella Lennox-Boyd-designed courtyard garden, a haven of biodiversity in the heart of the city, and Francois Drouais’s portrait of Queen Marie Antoinette hanging in the Café. Antonia where afternoon tea (the hotel’s ‘entry level’ experience) features superb cakes with a Japanese twist from pastry chef Yu Tanaka.

The spa uses products from Tata Harper, ‘ecological beauty engineers’, and you can let your children play in the most stylish playroom in Paris while you enjoy a ‘sensory reboot’. Professor Pineau, who decorated the yachts of Niarchos and Onassis, designed the sixth-floor pool to look like a 1920s caravel. Bathers can admire the frescoes depicting the entrance to the Hotel du Cap, one of the other properties of the Oetker group, while they turn around. 9/10

The rooms

Of the 190 rooms, 100 are suites. These range from the Imperiale Suite (if you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it) to the junior suites, which we stayed in. This one had a super comfortable bed, gorgeous high-quality linens, a sitting area, and a small terrace with enough space for two chairs from which to admire views over the city’s rooftops.

Traditional décor in a cream and sky blue palette is soothing, and the marble bathroom (almost as big as the bedroom) is ultra-luxurious, with a huge bath and powerful walk-in shower. Things lack a bit on the tech side, as you have to crawl across the floor to plug in a bedside charger, and it’s unclear if a particular switch needs to be on to activate the plug. Then you may find, as we did, that our phones didn’t charge overnight like we thought they had. 8.5/10

food and drink

If you’re a bloodhound who likes to increase visits to Michelin-starred restaurants, you can add four to your score at Le Bristol. Chef Eric Frechon has earned three stars at Epicure since 2009 and now has another at brasserie 114 Faubourg. The seven-course tasting menu with paired wines for two at Epicure will set you back a whopping €1230 and could include Frechon’s signature poached Bresse farmhouse hen, ‘vin jaune’ broth suprème, giblet bonbons, crayfish and black truffle.

A popular souvenir for departing guests is a loaf of Le Bristol’s live bread, made from ancient grains milled in the hotel’s own mill. You’ll find it at L’Épicerie for €8, along with a delicious array of treats, including chocolates produced in Le Bristol’s own chocolate factory, some honoring the hotel’s resident feline Socrates, who likes to play hide-and-seek. by the corridors. 9/10

The bottom line

Le Bristol manages to pull off the difficult feat of being as popular with the young and fashionable as it is with their parents and grandparents.

Similar to The Lanesborough in London, if cost isn’t an issue, it would make a memorable place to stay for a special birthday or anniversary, and a great backdrop for a proposal. Also, for those interested in getting a taste of Parisian nightlife, the good news is that residents are guaranteed access to BAD without queuing.

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A 15-minute walk from the hotel at 63 Rue de Monceau is the Musée Nissim de Camondo, a private mansion once owned by a wealthy Parisian Jewish family. Their tragic story is the subject of Edmund de Waal’s work. Letters to Camondo.

rates

A winter offer sees B&B from €2,150 for two people. Katy was a guest at Le Bristol Paris, part of the Oetker Collection. oetkercollection.com