Hôtel Barrière Fouquet's Paris

The brasserie came first, by more than a century. Louis Fouquet opened his café at the corner of the Champs-Élysées and avenue George V in 1899, and the red awnings of Fouquet's have marked the junction ever since. Hôtel Barrière Fouquet's Paris was built around it and opened in 2006, the Barrière group's answer to the question of what a Paris luxury hotel should be when it belongs to a family of casinos and seaside palaces.

History

Fouquet's became the restaurant of French cinema in the second half of the twentieth century; the dinner after the César awards has been held there since the ceremony's early years, and the walls carry the names of film people who were regulars. The Barrière family, owners of the Majestic in Cannes and the Normandy in Deauville, bought the brasserie in 1998 and set about assembling the block behind it. The hotel opened in November 2006 after four years of works on a site that joined several buildings between avenue George V and rue Vernet. A second campaign of works in 2017 renewed the rooms and public spaces, again with Jacques Garcia. The brasserie's own interior, with its wood panelling and brass, is listed as a historic monument, which is why the hotel was built around it rather than through it.

Architecture and design

The architect Édouard François was asked to make a new building that would not clash with its neighbours. His answer was to cast the Haussmannian facades of the existing corner buildings in concrete and reproduce them along the new elevations, so that the street reads as a continuous nineteenth-century block, with a modern glass element at one point to show the trick. The interiors are by Jacques Garcia, who worked in a register of dark woods, deep reds and heavy fabrics, closer to his Hôtel Costes than to a classical Paris Palace. The rooms are large by the standard of the quarter, as the new build allowed.

Rooms and suites

There are 81 rooms and suites, among them signature suites on the upper floors with views of the Arc de Triomphe. Garcia's 2017 refit lightened the palette while keeping the lacquer and velvet.

Dining

Fouquet's, the brasserie, has its menu overseen by Pierre Gagnaire, the three-star chef, since 2016. Marta, in the hotel, serves Italian cooking. Le Joy is the courtyard restaurant and summer terrace. A bar on the top floor has a terrace with a view towards the Arc de Triomphe.

Wellness

Spa Diane Barrière occupies the lower floors with treatment rooms, a hammam, a fitness room and an indoor pool of about 15 metres, unusual for a hotel of this size in the 8th arrondissement.

Weddings and events

The hotel has a group of meeting and reception rooms on the floor above the brasserie, used for dinners, launches and company meetings; the César dinner each winter is the best-known fixture. The brasserie itself can be privatised in part. Weddings are held in the salons and Le Joy courtyard. Capacities per room are not in our source material.

Location

The hotel sits at 46 avenue George V, with its brasserie on the Champs-Élysées corner, between the Arc de Triomphe and the avenue Montaigne couture houses. The quarter is the Triangle d'Or, bounded by the Champs-Élysées, avenue George V and avenue Montaigne, where most of the couture houses and several of the Paris Palaces stand within a few hundred metres of each other. Métro George V is at the door, Paris-Charles de Gaulle the nearest major airport.